Stand Up, the LRIG!
by stardustdragon2011
Summary: Summoned to an unbalanced world where a darker secret hides among the cards present there, Kai Toshiki is suddenly brought into a conflict beyond anything he can ever imagine. With new allies by his side and new rivals and foes to face, he struggles to seek out the answers he is looking for to discover the truth behind the battles that take place in the world before him.
1. Synopsis

**Set after Cardfight! Vanguard: Legion Mate and AU of Selector Spread Wixoss**

The game of Wixoss, a mysterious new breed of cards with a darker secret behind them. The players known merely as "Selectors", chosen by LRIGs that are alive and breathing in the cards they hold, battle it out with one another to uncover the truth behind a certain rumor, the strongest will obtain the wish of their desire. However, with a quest for great reward comes great risk. Whoever loses 3 of these Selector Battles will not only suffer terrible consequences, but receive a fate worse than anything they could ever imagine. Their wish becomes tainted and true despair will be brought upon them. As to expected with any game with the stakes raised that high, all is not as it seems.

Shortly after saving Sendou Aichi back in his own world, Kai Toshiki is suddenly brought into the conflict with little to no memory of how he arrived to be at this point in time. With his old Kagero deck back in his possession and transformed to suit the rules of this dark and mysterious game as well as obtaining Kominato Ruuko's original LRIG, Tama as his guide, Kai sets out to discover the truth of why he's been brought to this world and find out more about the mysteries behind Wixoss. Along the way, he will make new friends, rivals and enemies before confronting a demon from his past as he struggles to get the answers he wants behind the Selector battles and return home.

* * *

**And there you go. The full synopsis of what this crossover is about. The only minor cosmetic change that I will make to the Selector Battles is that SIGNI will also be capable of materializing to fight alongside the LRIG, but only when they are put into play.**

** Expect the first chapter to be up either before or by this weekend. In the meantime, I will leave a poll up on my account to allow you to vote on whether I should write the Selector battles that take place in the story in full detail or should I only do some brief moments like in the anime. Until then.**


	2. Ride 01: That Boy is Kai

**And so, without further adieu, the first chapter of Stand Up, the LRIG! is finally up. Now, I am aware that I have begun writing this BEFORE Selector Spread Wixoss has begun airing, even though this crossover is essentially an AU of said season, but some of the key events from Spread Wixoss will still be included in the story, hence why there may be some long gaps in the updates. Anyway, hope you enjoy reading the first chapter. **

* * *

Outside of a large city on top of a grassy hill, a harsh breeze was whistling throughout the evening sunset. On the ground lay a tall brunette, in an unconscious like state. He wore his usual school uniform, bluish blazer with a white shirt and bluish trousers. When he began to open his green eyes, the vision he had was blurred, as if he was waking up from a very deep slumber. As his eyes began to adjust to the brightness that was left in the daylight, he could now see where he was. He noticed the large city just below him at the bottom of the hill, but he had no idea of where exactly he woke up in. He clutched his head as he tried his hardest to remember anything as to how he got here.

_The last thing I remember is waking up one day and heading to Card Capital… everything after that point... is a complete blank…_

Deciding not to ponder on this most confusing of situations he had gotten himself into, he decided to take the initiative and head towards the city to see if he could get any information towards his current situation and whereabouts.

* * *

The boy began to wonder around the streets of this large city that he happened to wake up just outside of. It definitely did not seem familiar to him at all, even with the amount of travelling he had done in the past. He overheard some chatter from a group of people nearby, but chose not to worry about it and continue on his way.

_This place is not one I have seen, but the people here seem to know my language. I must still be in Japan if that is the case._

As he ventured deeper into the city, he could hear several murmurs going across a few people, something to do with a "special event that took place yesterday" and "Wixoss". Whilst he was unfamiliar with the last term, the mention of this special event did raise some intrigue of what this "Wixoss" could be about. He continued his long walk, heading towards the tallest building near the center of the city which seemed to catch his interest. The height of the building was very imposing, almost like a giant pillar, showing its great dominance over everything in the city that stood before it. The building looked like it was incomplete in construction, but appeared safe to traverse.

_This building... Why do I feel as though something is drawing me inside?_

Curious as to what stirred these murmurs, he decided to take the time to enter it. As he explored each of the rooms of the many floors, ascending via the stairs and elevators present, he could find nothing that seemed to answer any of the questions that were brewing in his head by the second. As he ventured nearer to the roof of the building, he noticed something in the corner in a room on one of the topmost floors.

He walked over to the corner to find a pile of cards, seemingly dropped by someone who had been here earlier. They were unfamiliar to him as their designs in appearance and borders were different to what he'd normally expect. He turned over the back of the card he picked up and found a star like design on a black background with a word imprinted on it. Wixoss. This had managed to answer one of his questions at last. Wixoss was a term referring to a game that was commonly played around, wherever it was he woke up in.

_If that's the case, my deck won't be of any help around here._

He reached into his pocket, pulling out a box containing a deck of his own. But as he pulled the cards out, he noticed that something was different about them.

_Dragonic Overlord? But I don't remember having my old Kagero deck in my possession. More importantly…_

He briefly looked at Dragonic Overlord, then at the card he briefly took a look at. The design markings were almost identical to the ones on that card he had picked up earlier. He briefly fanned out his deck to notice it was resembling a Kagero deck he had used before in previous Cardfights up to this current point in time, only this time, not only had their designs been altered, but there were several new but unfamiliar cards among the deck now. His cards had the words SIGNI, LRIG, ARTS and Spell imprinted in their borders allowing him to identify the different types of cards his deck had changed into. When he looked at the backs of the fanned cards, he could see that 40 of them had black backings whilst 9 of them had white backings. He checked the front of the cards again and was able to confirm the LRIG and ARTS cards had white backings.

_So my deck has changed to adapt to the rulings of Wixoss? Just what is going on here?_

Deciding to worry about the answer to that question for a later time, he continued to explore the rest of the building. Unbeknownst to the brunette on the far opposite side of the floor that he had just explored, Ulith who was in Iona's body had taken a brief glance across towards him when he looked at one of the dropped cards and peeked through his deck. She was curious as to why a boy like him would go about his business into looking around this place after yesterday's events occurred. Before she could murmur something like "scum" or "trash" as she would have done during her time as an LRIG, she saw something glow from her pocket. Pulling out the Wixoss deck that Iona had in her possession before becoming an Eternal Girl, she suddenly noticed something different about the backs of the top card. Fanning out the deck from the back, she could see that the text that was imprinted beneath the Wixoss logo appeared to have changed. It read out:

_A Boy carrying a heavy burden of sin._

_Called upon from his fight "Vanguard"_

_wielding the flames of perdition._

_Seeking a way to end this conflict..._

_Victory will be the only way for his_

_wish to revolutionize._

_Now, shall his "Wish Across" be ignited._

Ulith stared at this in disbelief for a moment. How did the prophecy on the back of the cards change? Within the blink of an eye, literally, the text had reverted back to how it was before which read:

_A Girl prayed to fulfill her wish._

_Scattered strange gene "Wixoss"_

_all around the world fusion into one form._

_Searching in vain for a fight..._

_Victory will be the only way for her_

_wish to revolutionize._

_Now, shall her "Wish Across" be conquered._

Believing that she was just seeing things, Ulith placed the deck in Iona's coat pocket, or rather her own now that she was in her body. But she couldn't help but wonder at what this could have meant and could that boy she saw just now have something to do with it? Deciding not to ponder any further on this, she turned around and went to take the nearby elevator to the ground floor.

_Hmph. Just a trick of the light, _she thought smugly whilst waiting for the lift. _As if a boy scum would actually be a Selector. _

* * *

Meanwhile at the top of the building, the brunette walked out onto the roof, only to find it to be completely deserted. It was desolate now that yesterday's events had fully transpired, events that he was fully unaware of. As he was about to turn around and leave, he noticed a small, but brilliant glow coming from the sky above him. This glow slowly made its way down to where the brunette was standing. He held his hands out in front of him to catch the falling glow. When he caught it, the glow suddenly faded out into a single card.

The picture depicted a starry blue background that had a sleeping girl with plain white hair. Her hairs were tied up into two for each sides with pinky white and orange ribbons each. She wore a simple white sleeveless dress and white long boots. The brunette pondered as to what this card was and why it was sent to him this way. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a yawn coming from somewhere. He briefly glanced around on the roof to see if he could find where it was coming from. When he looked back at the card however, he was surprised. This girl, inside the card he was holding, appeared to be waking up from a long sleep.

"Yawn… Huh?" The girl who had just opened her white eyes looked at the brunette in surprise and confusion. Who was this person and how did she end up in his possession?

"Who are you?" the brunette asked.

"T...Tama," the girl answers, unsure of how she even got into this boy's hands "...?"

"I am Kai Toshiki," the boy replied "More importantly, how are you able to talk inside this card?"

"Kai doesn't know?" Tama asked. Kai shook his head. He had no idea of what he had just witnessed. First he woke up in an unfamiliar place with possibly no idea of how to return home and now here he was, on top of a deserted building, talking to a girl inside a card that came from the sky above. Kai mentally face palmed as could only just imagine if Miwa were here with a goofy grin over this whole scenario, if only such an occasion was suitable for a more light hearted tale.

"Oh, Tama knows!" she exclaimed "Kai must be some kind of Selector!"

"Selector?" Kai replied in confusion.

"Selector is someone who has a LRIG like Tama who can talk, though it is usually a girl who is a Selector," Tama explained "Kai has played Wixoss before, right?"

"No," he answered. A small frown appeared on Tama's face as she pouted in disappointment.

"Aw," she moaned. Kai then heard her mutter something that was quiet, but loud enough for him to hear.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked.

"Tama wants to go back to Ru," she answered.

"Ru?"

"Tama wants to be with Ruuko!" cried Tama.

This only left Kai with even more questions than he had answers. Who was this Ruuko? Was this person or "Selector" the original owner of Tama's card? What could have happened for Tama to end up in his hands? Kai was still baffled of how he even ended up in this city and had no memory of how he got here and how to return home. For now though, he thought that it wouldn't hurt to try and help Tama get back with this Ruuko.

"Alright then Tama. I will help you," he said.

"Really?! Tama thanks you dearly!" Tama exclaimed happily, albeit a tad too loud for Kai's liking.

"First though, do you know anyone else who may know Ruuko?" Kai asked. It didn't take long for Tama to reply with an answer.

"Oh! Tama knows other Selectors who are friends!" she exclaimed "Tama will let Kai know if we see them!" Kai nodded in agreement. They were already on the right track and he managed to get some answers to what was going on around here. He had more questions, but could put those on hold for now. Kai slipped Tama's card into his front blazer pocket as he turned to the door behind him so he could finally exit the building.

* * *

When he got to the bottom floor and walked out through the front door, Kai began exploring the city streets. Even though the sunset was barely still present in the sky, there were still people going about the streets. Any one of them could have known about Ruuko so that he could reunite Tama with him or her. He looked around across many people, but Tama didn't seem to recognize any of them to know about Ruuko. A few minutes later, as he began to walk down a pathway through the park, before he could even think of anything else, someone had run into the back of him. Kai turned around to see who had run into his back.

The girl that bumped into him had brown hair and eyes, her hair tied into two on each side with green ribbons. She wore round glasses and a dark brown hairband. She then saw Kai look at her and immediately started panicking.

"S...Sorry about that!" she stuttered, trying hard to apologize to him.

"Don't worry about it," he replied. She nodded and hurried away from him. At this moment, Kai felt his blazer pocket twitch. Tama was trying to get his attention onto something. He pulled the card out to see what she was trying to tell him about.

"Tama knows her, bring Tama to her!" she exclaimed. Kai nodded and hurried after the girl that bumped into him.

"Hey, wait!" he called out. The girl froze on the spot in worry and turned around as he caught up to her. Kai held out Tama's card to her.

"Do you know her?" Kai asked. Looking at Tama's card and recognizing said LRIG immediately bought the girl a sigh of relief.

"Yeah…" she answered. That was when another voice decided to join in on the conversation.

"Hey, what's with all the ruckus?" The girl reached inside her uniform and brought out a card of her own. It held a girl inside who could talk, much like Tama. She wore a red top with red trousers to match the fiery background of her card and had black hair with brown eyes. She briefly stared at Kai and was surprised to see him looking down at her, before she turned attention to the fact that Tama was in his possession.

"Tama! Are you okay?!"

"Tama's fine!" she answered with joy "Kai here's going to help Tama find Ruuko!" The girl inside the other card sighed in relief and looked back up at Kai.

"So you can hear and see us?" she asked.

"Yeah," replied Kai "Are you saying that only Selectors can see LRIGs like you?"

"That's right," she answered "Selectors are... well... I'm not sure why a boy like you can see LRIGs in the first place, but I guess if you're holding Tama and can somehow see her, that somewhat fixes it. My name's Yuzuki, this is Hitoe. Kai was your name, right?"

"Yeah," he answered "Kai Toshiki."

"N...Nice to meet you Kai!" said Hitoe. Kai merely nodded, unsure of what to make of it.

"Do either of you know where I can find a Selector named Ruuko?" he asked. At this point, both Hitoe and Yuzuki held their heads down as both Kai and Tama were unaware of what happened to Ruuko as of late. "Is something wrong?"

"Well, you see…" Yuzuki began "We have a bit of a problem."

"Eh? What happened?" Tama asked. Yuzuki cleared her throat. It was likely that Kai had absolutely no idea as to what happened in wherever it was he woke up in and Tama herself was unaware of what happened to Ruuko within the last 24 hours.

"Considering that Kai has no idea of what's been going on," she said "We need to explain everything from the very beginning."

"I see," said Kai "Please tell me."

"Very well," replied Yuzuki. She then proceeded to tell the whole story about themselves up to this point in time along with an introduction to know who Ruuko was so Kai would have a better idea of her. Yuzuki then explained of how she got Ruuko into the game of Wixoss with the inclusion of the Selector Battles, the proposals of winning enough battles and becoming an Eternal Girl to grant their deepest desires, the dark nature of those battles and what had recently transpired from them. Both Hitoe and Tama interjected at times involving their personal sides of the story so far and how they came to be in this point in time. After a few minutes of explaining, Hitoe and Yuzuki had finally gotten to the part they were dreading.

"When Iona performed her contract for becoming an Eternal Girl, not only had her LRIG Ulith taken control of her body, but Iona herself also became Ruuko's new LRIG," Yuzuki explained "After that, Ruuko was in a complete state. Before we could try and sort things out... she ran away. Not even her grandmother and brother knows where she's gone now."

Tama having listened to the end of the whole story was close to the verge of tears. She was abruptly absent from Ruuko when those events occurred as she was confronted in an unknown space by a mysterious person, unbeknowst to her was actually named Mayu who Yuzuki had met before, that made her reconsider going through with Ruuko's wish to free everyone that was trapped in the cards. Now realizing that she was possibly deceived because of this revelation, she had no idea of whether to be upset for not being there for Ruuko when she needed her most or to be angry for possibly being tricked by whoever it was that made her reconsider Ruuko's wish.

Kai who had listened to the whole story wasn't letting it show, but deep down, he was horrified of what Yuzuki, Tama and Hitoe had just told him. Every Selector but the group he now knew of were on a doom collision course in their Selector Battles where both outcomes came with terrible consequences for any Selector, no matter who won or lost those battles. He wasn't sure whether to feel sorry for those that had suffered from those battles or to feel angry that they were pulled into a darker picture where they had no idea imaginable of what could happen to them.

When he overheard about the promise of becoming an Eternal Girl to grant any wish possible or so an LRIG would claim as Yuzuki's original LRIG Hanayo had told her so before she deceived her by snatching control of Yuzuki's body to fulfill her wish whilst trapping Yuzuki herself inside the card by this Mayu's rules, this only managed to bring back bad memories of how he was mostly responsible for the Link Joker invasion that nearly destroyed the world that he came from, just so he could fulfill his own desire of becoming the strongest Vanguard fighter. Looking back on that and comparing it to the current situation, he could see how they were feeling.

"I understand how you feel, especially you Yuzuki," he said "I once pursued my own wish selfishly that I couldn't care less of the consequences that followed. At the end of it all, I could see that my actions were only hurting other people around me. I felt I wanted to just disappear, but a close friend managed to convince me that living in solitude all alone would not solve anything and he helped me to pull myself together." The group listened to what Kai had to say and started to feel a bit sorry for him. It wasn't easy to bring up personal demons from the past, especially if they somewhat related to the current situation at hand.

"It… It's okay," said Yuzuki "You didn't have to bring your end up." _My heart may belong with Kazuki, but I can sympathize with Kai. Speaking of which, I can only hope that traitorous Hanayo hasn't made any dirty moves on onii-san because I'm not leaving this card until that stinking bitch gets what's coming to her!_

"I may not know why I have been sent here or why Tama has ended up with me," said Kai "But I do know this much. I need to reunite her with Ruuko and find out more about this dark charade in the works." The group could only offer him some warm smiles to let him know that they had his approval and were willing to help out. Before they had time to think of anything else, Kai suddenly glanced behind him and noticed a blunt object flying towards them. He quickly slipped Tama's card back into the front blazer pocket as he moved forward towards Hitoe.

"Look out!" he called. Kai quickly pushed her out of the way to dodge the object which flew just inches past the back of his blazer and struck the ground with a loud noise. It was a blunt knife and that alone was more than enough to scare Hitoe. This in fact had scared her so much that she held onto Kai, wanting this to be over already. He turned around to find the person that had thrown the knife at them, who was standing atop the branch of a nearby tree. She had orange hair and a bloody mark over her right cheek to indicate that this wasn't an everyday normal person that Kai was confronted by. Her dark brown eyes looked bloodthirsty, locked onto both him and Hitoe.

"Just who are you?!" Kai demanded.

"That's Akira!" whimpered Hitoe, remembering what happened back then having explained about her to Kai. Akira smiled viciously and jumped down to the ground.

"Oh? So you remember me, Aki-lucky," the psychotic girl replied "What's this? You found a human shield? Or are you afraid from the fact you've become a Selector once again?" Kai gritted his teeth. As much as he disliked the idea of being a human shield, he knew that it was too dangerous for Hitoe to be near Akira in her current state. Upon hearing the word Selector, he made a decision. He reached for his Kagero deck and took it out of his deck box.

"Battle me!" he called. This caused both Yuzuki and Hitoe to gasp in shock.

"Wait Kai!" called Yuzuki "You said you don't know how to play Wixoss! There's no way you'll defeat Akira if you are unfamiliar with the rules!" Akira suddenly noticed Yuzuki inside the card that Hitoe held and burst out into an uproar of maniac laughter.

"Oh my...!" she giggled sinisterly "Yuzu-pon got stuck inside a card and became Hitoe-pon's new LRIG?! What an upset!" Kai stepped forward to make his proposal to battle Akira clear.

"If I win, you must leave us alone!" he called.

"Kai, forget about Akira!" called Yuzuki "We should worry about getting Hitoe away from her!" She suddenly looked up at him. His eyes were full of determination and his resolve was unshaken. "Kai…" Akira however had a different viewpoint into this proposal.

"... You're kidding me, right," she snickered "... Even if you were to know about the rules, there's no way I'd battle you. Only 'girls' who hold LRIGs like mine can participate in Selector Battles and as far as I'm concerned, you aren't eligible for that." Kai then pulled out Tama's card from his front blazer pocket and held her out to Akira.

"Is the fact that I can see LRIGs and have one in my possession eligible enough for you?" he asked. Akira could only raise an eyebrow in partial confusion as to how this was even possible, considering that she knew that Tama was Ruuko's LRIG from their previous battle, but in precisely two seconds, she got her reply to Kai's question as the LRIG in her possession answered out for her.

"It is fine," spoke a voice. Akira growled at this.

"Piruluk-tan, let me speak for myself!" she snapped back. She then turned back to Kai. "Alright then, Aki-lucky," she said "I accept your little proposal. But don't expect me to show you any mercy." Kai nodded and placed Tama's card at the bottom of his Kagero deck, in front of Dragonic Overlord's card.

"Tama, if you are able to, please help me as much as you can," he said.

"Mhm!" called Tama "Battle!" Akira smiled maliciously at Kai, this was going to be fun.

"Very well then," she sneered "My first new victim, lucky, lucky." She then took out the LRIG card that had spoken out earlier and held the back of it to Kai. "Open!" At that moment, several rectangular flashes emitted from the card, straight at Kai. As he stared at the card, the area around him just seemed to vanish all together. Just like that, everything became a complete blank.

* * *

**And so, that's the end of Chapter 1! Hope you've enjoyed it. The poll to decide on my writing direction for the battles is still up, so there's still time for you to decide on how I should write out the Selector Battles, especially since next chapter is Kai vs Akira. Don't forget to favourite, follow and/or leave a review. I will accept criticism, but no flaming. Until then.**


	3. Ride 02: This Battle is Fierce

**And here we go! Kai's very first battle is now underway. With the votes that have been cast on the poll of my profile (now closed just to warn you), I will be writing the battles from start to finish with detail (with some of the battles later on in the story skipping out a few turns, but not enough for people to not understand what has happened). Hope you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

When Kai eventually came to his senses, he soon found he was no longer in the city streets. All around him, he could see what appeared to be the silhouettes of multiple buildings, shrouded in both blue and red colors. In front of him, he could see that before him lay some sort of table that he was seated at. On the center most spot, he could see that were seven white lights surrounding the centralmost space, seven black cards were set face down behind said space and five of his cards were face-up right in front of him. As he looked down the table, he noticed both his main and LRIG decks beside each other on the right end of the table. He could only assume that was part of the rules to start a Wixoss battle. He noticed that Akira and her LRIG, Piruluk was in the opposite direction from where he was and she was already raring to go.

"This is…" he spoke.

"Well, what are you waiting for Aki-lucky?" she taunted "Let's get this battle started already!" Kai searched through his LRIG deck to see if he could find a starting LRIG. Several of his already familiar cards along with his ARTS cards were already among the LRIG deck, Dragonic Overlord included. He could see that Tama's card was also part of the LRIG deck now. Tama looked at Kai and smiled.

"Choose a LRIG to start!" she called. Kai nodded. There appeared to multiple LRIGs of different levels in his deck, all of which he was familiar with, but for some reason, he felt as though using the higher level ones was not the right thing to do. He looked back over his options and made a decision. He placed the LRIG deck back on its space on the table and placed the LRIG he had chosen on the centermost spot.

"I'll start with Lizard Runner, Undeux!" he called. Akira raised an eyebrow in confusion at this as she stared at Kai's starting LRIG who appeared in a bright flash on the LRIG space of his table. Undeux was nothing like she was expecting. Rather that a girl or Tama for that manner fighting for Kai, he had chosen a red lizard like creature with armored wings and multiple swords stashed on his back armor. _What the hell? LRIGs are normally girls who are a Selector's avatar who help them in their bid to become an Eternal Girl and claim their wish. Yet this boy's LRIG is some sort of creature. I was expecting him to use that LRIG Ru-pon originally had._ However, after processing that thought, she could only increase her smile even more. _Doesn't matter, this boy looks even more clueless than I thought and that is something that I like to see._

"Very well then," she sneered "Look above you." Kai heard a strange noise from the background and looked up right above him. Some sort of giant roulette had already begun spinning, each slot had either red or blue imprinted in it. Kai took a brief glance back to the battlefield to notice Piruluk, Akira's LRIG. Her card was colored blue whilst his Lizard Runner, Undeux card had a red color. He could only assume that the color represented both the deck type and the player on the roulette. The giant wheel stopped at a blue colour, much to his dismay.

"Too bad, Aki-lucky," Akira smiled "I'll go first. Draw and Ener charge. Grow, Code Piruluk K!"

A brief series of hexagonal flashes rose up around Piruluk. Nothing much of her appearance changed, apart from her blue and white garb which now had what appeared to be wings on the back. She stared closely at Undeux, still curious as to how this creature was able to manifest itself as an LRIG for Kai to use when he could of simply used Tama. Deciding to ponder on that later, she decided to focus on just obtaining victory from this battle.

"I summon Code Art RFR and use her ability!" As the SIGNI appeared in front of Piruluk, Akira then discarded 1 of the cards in her hand and drew one card. "Over to you, Aki-lucky." Before Kai could begin his turn, he saw a glow from his LRIG deck. Tama appeared in a flash, just beside his LRIG deck. Since she was not battling for him, the only reason she was able to appear was because of her acting as a spectator and somewhat of a tutor for Kai when needed, much to her partial annoyance.

"Kai!" she called.

"What is it Tama?" he asked.

"Now that the first turn is over, both players now draw two cards from their black deck at the start of their turns for the rest of the game," she explained "In addition, Kai may put one SIGNI in hand or field into Ener before Growing each turn." Kai nodded. At least he was starting to understand the many twists and turns the game had to offer.

"Draw and Ener Charge. I grow Embodiment of Armor, Bahr!" As Undeux vanished in a bright white glow, a large demon, clad in red armor, wielding a black sword with a yellow trim on the blade, entered the LRIG spot on Kai's table. Even Tama was surprised that he managed to learn the concept of Grow without even asking, but her attention was drawn to the LRIG he used right now. Each Selector would normally have just one LRIG as their sole avatar that would grow stronger with every Level it went up, yet Kai seemed to have multiple LRIG cards.

"I summon Gatling Claw Dragon!" Kai called. Gatling Claw Dragon materialized in front of Bahr. "Gatling Claw Dragon's skill. I pay 1 card from my Ener Zone and move Gatling Claw Dragon there. I choose one of my opponent's Level 1 SIGNI that has 2000 or less power and send it to their Trash Pile." Gatling Claw Dragon raised its gun and rained bullets on Code Art RFR as the SIGNI screamed in pain from the effect before vanishing. Akira gritted her teeth having not expected Kai to even have the capability to already have control of the battle, even though it was his first time playing. Gatling Claw Dragon vanished from Kai's field as the card moved to his Ener Zone.

"Finally, I summon Iron Tail Dragon!" A red dragon appeared directly in front of Bahr. It had two yellow blades running down the lower halves of its arms down to its claws along with an additional blade at the end of its tail.

"Yes!" called Tama "Now we get to the good part! Battle Kai!"

"Iron Tail Dragon attacks first!" Kai declared. The card went down sideways as Iron Tail Dragon took flight, charged towards Piruluk and slashed her. One of Akira's Life Cloth cards flipped up and entered her Ener Zone, Code Art RFR. At the same time, of the seven lights around Piruluk on the LRIG space of Akira's table went dim. Kai noticed this before looking at the Life Cloth cards he had face-down and the lights surrounding Bahr. _I presume if all the cards in this zone are no longer present, the Selector somehow loses the battle. If that's the case, I must be careful._

"Kai wondering about the card that flew into Akira's Ener Zone?" asked Tama.

"Yeah," replied Kai "Could you give me some detail into how much it will affect the game?"

"Mhm! Let Tama explain!" she called. "Each time an LRIG suffers a hit from a successful attack, the top card of their Selector's Life Cloths is moved to the Ener Zone. Kai needs to damage Piruruku 7 times before Kai can win. Once Akira has no Life Cloths left and Kai makes a successful eighth attack on her by then, Kai will automatically win!"

Kai nodded now that he understood how the 7 Life Cloth cards he also had were important. "Bahr attacks next!" Bahr dashed forward across the field as he charged towards Piruruku before slashing her with his blade. The LRIG didn't seemed fazed by the fact that Kai had gained an early lead, whether he knew it or not. Bahr took a giant leap back to the LRIG space on Kai's table. Another light around Piruluk went dim as another card entered Akira's Ener Zone, Code Art PZL. Unlike the previous Life Cloth, this one was glowing.

"Too bad for you, Aki-lucky," she sneered "Life Burst activated. Now we both must discard one card from our hands." Kai simply huffed. These Life Burst abilities almost worked like Damage Triggers in his sense, but he wasn't expecting such a thing with an effect that could cripple him. He discarded the Level 2 SIGNI, Burning Horn Dragon, something that could of helped him later. He looked at both Bahr and Iron Tail Dragon to notice both cards had gone sideways after he waged their attacks. He could only assume it was similar to Rest and that he would have to wait until his next turn to attack with them again.

"Turn end," he declared.

**End of Turn 2**

**Kai vs Akira**

**Hand - 3 : 4**

**Life Cloths - 7 : 5**

**Current LRIGs - Embodiment of Armor, Bahr : Code Piruluk K**

**SIGNI: EMPTY - Iron Tail Dragon - EMPTY : EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY**

**Ener - 1 : 3**

"Draw," called Akira "Ener Charge and I'll pay the cost of 1 to Grow! Code Piruruku M!"

"Summon!" Two more SIGNI appeared on both the left and right sides of Piruluk. They were Code Art MMR and WTC (both of which were Level 2). "MMR's ability." One additional card moved to Akira's hand from the deck as another moved to her Trash Pile. She then pointed a finger across to Kai's table.

"WTC, freeze Iron Tail Dragon!" A blue circle appeared in the SIGNI's hand as she raised it at Iron Tail Dragon. A blizzard was summoned from the circle as the dragon was instantly encased inside a huge chunk of ice. Some ice formed around the card as Kai quickly noticed. Tama shivered a little from the effects of the ice being close to her.

"With this, Iron Tail Dragon cannot Up at the start of your next turn," Akira spoke "All your SIGNI can do is stay still as Piruluk and my forces annihilates you, one hit at a time!" Kai briefly stared at his current situation and then looked back at her.

"I may not be completely familar with Wixoss," he spoke "But I'm no stranger to these types of tactics." Akira briefly held a confused look at him for a moment, not quite getting at what he meant, but brushed it off.

"My SIGNI, attack Bahr!" Code Art MMR and WTC nodded and charged across the field towards the Embodiment of Armor. WTC summoned another blue circle to cast another blizzard, this time encasing Bahr in half a chunk of ice up to the demon's waistline. MMR leaped up and held out her right hand unleashing a flurry of electric bolts at Bahr, shocking him. Two lights around the LRIG space went dim as two cards flew from Kai's Life Cloths to his Ener Zone. The first card was Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara whilst Seal Dragon, Artpique was revealed as his second Life Cloth. Artpique's card was glowing as Kai noticed the black section at the bottom of the text box.

"Got a Life Burst effect," he spoke "Draw." Akira sneered as she raised her hand across the table.

"Piruluk, give Bahr and Kai a taste of pain!" she called. Piruluk flew across the field and held out her hands, materializing a large ice crystal within them. She tossed it at Bahr, the crystal exploding on contact after hitting the Embodiment of Armor. Tama briefly held her arm out in front to shield herself from the aftershocks of the impact. When the smoke cleared, another light around Bahr dimmed as Garnet, Alluring Stone entered Kai's Ener Zone.

"Over to you," spoke Akira, signalling the end of her turn.

**End of Turn 3**

**Kai vs Akira**

**Hand - 4 : 3**

**Life Cloths - 4 : 5**

**Current LRIGs - Embodiment of Armor, Bahr : Code Piruluk M**

**SIGNI: EMPTY - Iron Tail Dragon (Frozen) - EMPTY : Code Art MMR - EMPTY - Code Art WTC**

**Ener - 4 : 3**

"Is Kai okay?!" called Tama.

"Yeah," he replied "I understand your concern." Having taking into account that Kai was fine, Tama beamed a smile and nodded for him to continue.

"Up and draw. I Ener Charge and pay the cost. Grow! Dragon Knight, Nehalem!" Bahr vanished from the LRIG zone as a knight who stood atop a large dragon entered the battlefield. The knight had dark blue armor and wielded a long lance along with a large shield. Meanwhile from a distance away, Hitoe and Yuzuki had been watching the battle since the start on the sidelines. Even though she was still bound to her card, Yuzuki was sitting on Hitoe's shoulder as the dimensional space they were in allowed non battling LRIGs to spectate from outside of their cards alongside their Selectors. She was in awe over the cards that Kai had put into play and was quite intrigued that he was somehow able to summon multiple dragons to his aid. _Those cards, they're nothing like I've ever seen. Kai Toshiki, just who exactly are you?_

"I summon Flame Edge Dragon and Berserk Dragon!" A dragon with two heads and a red dragon wielding two orange blades appeared alongside Nehalem. "I pay the cost of 2 for Berserk Dragon. I choose a Level 2 or lower SIGNI and banish it!" He then pointed towards a certain spot on Akira's table. "Code Art WTC!" The two headed dragon let loose two fireballs which struck WTC, removing her from Akira's field.

"Berserk Dragon attacks Code Art MMR!" The dragon once again launched 2 fireballs from its heads at MMR, incinerating her in an instant. The defeated SIGNI entered her Ener Zone, something that Kai quickly took note of.

"Next, Flame Edge Dragon attacks!" The dragon took flight and unleashed a torrent of flames from its mouth which struck Piruluk. Another light in her LRIG space dimmed as one card flew from Akira's Life Cloths to her Ener Zone. Code Art KEY glowed as once again, Kai had ended up triggering a Life Burst. Tama briefly pouted having noticed this.

"Too bad, Aki-lucky," Akira sneered "Draw."

"Flame Edge Dragon's ability," he spoke "When the attack against an LRIG is successful, I can Ener Charge the top card of my deck." The top card of his deck, "Silvan, Alluring Stone", entered his Ener Zone before he turned his attention to his current LRIG.

"Finally, Nehalem attacks Piruluk!" At this moment, Akira slapped down a card in front of her center SIGNI zone, Servant D.

"Guard!" The SIGNI in question that she was guarding with briefly appeared in front of Piruluk before being struck by the lightning sent her way by Nehalem's lance. Kai could only maintain a "I should have known" look as he stared across the battlefield. He briefly turned towards Tama.

"That Guard she used," he said "Can it block any attacks?"

"Not all," she replied "Only LRIG attacks." Kai nodded, having managed to understand how Guarding worked. He briefly glanced at his hand to notice he had Wyvern Guard, Barri available to Guard Piruluk's attack when he needed it to.

"Turn end," he declared. At this moment, the ice around Iron Tail Dragon shattered indicating that the freeze effect had worn off.

**End of Turn 4**

**Kai vs Akira**

**Hand - 3 : 3**

**Life Cloths - 4 : 4**

**Current LRIGs - Dragon Knight, Nehalem : Code Piruluk M**

**SIGNI: Flame Edge Dragon - Iron Tail Dragon - Berserk Dragon : EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY**

**Ener - 2 : 6**

"Draw and Ener Charge! Grow, Code Piruluk G!" In a few brief flashes, Piruluk gained two additional wings on her garb whilst two more small "blades" appeared on the orb in her hair.

"Summon!" Two SIGNI, Code Art PZL (Level 3) and Code Art JV (Level 2) appeared in front of and to the left of Piruluk.

"PZL, freeze Flame Edge Dragon!" Kai could only watch as Flame Edge Dragon was encased in a chunk of ice summoned by Code Art PZL. He then noticed Akira's lips begin to form a malicious smile.

"And now... ARTS!" she called "Peeping Analyze!"

As three cards moved from her Ener Zone to her Trash Pile, Yuzuki and Hitoe could only gasp in horror. Akira had Piruluk use this tactic on them before and the effect of having the Selector torment them about their wishes was devastating to their composure and had resulted in them losing to her in their respective battles against said Selector.

_Kai... Brace yourself! _Yuzuki thought in worry.

"Now then Piruluk-tan, let's take a closer look inside Aki-lucky!" she sneered "Show me what his wish is about!" As Piruluk opened her eyes and aimed Peeping Analyze at Kai, her eyes emitted a wave of some sort that transmitted towards him. This way, she could transfer the information Akira wanted about his wish to her. However, as she cast the ART, a huge haze of fire suddenly consumed her vision. The intense heat was too much to handle for the LRIG as she had to cancel the effect now. Before she did, Piruluk could see two large yellow eyes in the flames before a loud roar forced her to come out of her vision. As the LRIG came back to her senses, she could see that Kai was still staring intensely across towards her and Akira. Nothing had happened to him from her attempt to read his wish.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Akira growled "You were supposed to get what I want from Aki-lucky over there!"

"I... I don't know," replied Piruluk.

"What do you mean Piruluk-tan?!"

"Something from that boy is blocking my power," she replied "It was like I was staring into the flames of hell itself." The image of the flames was still burning fresh in her mind, though Piruluk was more curious of whatever she saw in that fire, from those two yellow eyes and that fierce roar to follow on. Akira, unaware of this and annoyed of not being able to see Kai's desire was starting to lose her patience.

"Fine, whatever!" she growled "I choose to declare Level 2!"

Kai having to comply with the card's effect calmly revealed his entire hand comprised of Dual Axe Archdragon, Wyvern Guard, Barri and Dragon Monk, Gojo, none of which were Level 2.

"What?! You mean?!"

"You should have taken your time," he replied "I have no Level 2 SIGNI in my hand, so you wasted quite a powerful ARTS." Akira gritted her teeth, Kai was really starting to piss her off now. Not only was this his first ever game, but he had complete control of the battle and she was slipping up because of it.

"I'll use TOO BAD!" she declared. As the Spell was cast onto her field, she pointed her finger towards Kai, like in the shape of a gun.

"Discard!" A pulse of blue energy shot from her fingers and struck one of Kai's cards in his hand. When it was revealed which card that she struck, she could only sneer. It was the Guard SIGNI she saw just a few moments ago and that was good for her.

"Bye bye Barri!" she sneered as she watched the Guard SIGNI fall into Kai's Trash Pile. Kai himself however did not seem concerned about this turn of events.

"Code Art PZL, JV! Attack!" called Akira. The two SIGNI held out their arms as sparks rained from them to Berserk Dragon and Iron Tail Dragon, defeating them in an instant. The two defeated SIGNI vanished and reappeared in Kai's Ener Zone.

"Next! Piruluk, attack Nehalem!" The LRIG raised her right arm, materializing multiple ice projectiles around her. When she pointed right at Nehalem, the spears launched at and struck both the knight and the dragon he stood atop of. Another light around the LRIG space dimmed as Kai noticed the card that entered his Ener Zone. It was glowing which meant he had triggered another Life Burst.

"Dragon Monk, Genjo's Life Burst!" he called.

"Oh, so you'll Ener Charge or draw another card, right Aki-lucky?" Akira mused.

"No," replied Kai "This one is different."

"How so?"

"With this Life Burst," he explained "If I have equal or fewer Life Cloths than my opponent when I trigger it, the top card of my deck is placed on the topmost side of my Life Cloth zone face down, without me looking at what it is." Akira's eyes widened in surprise.

"What the?! How does a Life Burst like that even exist?!" she gasped. Even Tama stared at Kai in awe over this turn of events. Over on the sidelines, both Hitoe and Yuzuki were surprised, not expecting Kai to have something like that present in his deck already.

_There's a Life Burst that allows him to do_ _that?!_ Yuzuki thought_ First his deck consists mostly of dragons rather than different types of girls, except for a few common Red SIGNI he's placed in his Ener Zone and now he's used a Life Burst that will prolong his defeat? Maybe Kai does have a chance after all._

Akira could only pout in annoyance over this turn of events, but remained cool as she kept in mind that she took out the only two SIGNI that weren't frozen. "Turn end," she spoke.

**End of Turn 5**

**Kai vs Akira**

**Hand - 2 : 2**

**Life Cloths - 4 : 4**

**Current LRIGs - Dragon Knight, Nehalem : Code Piruluk G**

**SIGNI: Flame Edge Dragon (Frozen) - EMPTY - EMPTY : Code Art JV - Code Art PZL - EMPTY**

**Ener - 5 : 1**

Before starting his turn, Kai looked over his frozen Flame Edge Dragon. He couldn't up it this turn, making it useless to him for the time being other than acting as a brick wall for Akira's next wave of attacks. He suddenly remembered back to what Tama had told him at the start of his very first turn in the battle.

"Draw," he spoke "I Ener Charge with my frozen Flame Edge Dragon!" The ice around the dragon suddenly shattered in a brilliant flash as the SIGNI card disappeared and then reappeared in his Ener Zone. "And... I choose not to grow this turn!" Tama could only let out a large "EH?!" whilst Akira raised an eyebrow in confusion, then burst out into a fit of laughter.

"What?!" she giggled "You had the opportunity to remain on even ground and you choose to hold back a Level?! Too bad for you Aki-lucky!" Piruluk could see that Kai however was not fazed by this as he continued his turn.

"Summon!" Another Gatling Claw Dragon appeared in the space that was formerly occupied by Flame Edge.

"Gatling Claw attacks Piruluk!" Kai declared. Gatling Claw Dragon opened fire on the LRIG as a light dimmed in the space she stood in. Code Art CPU entered Akira's Ener Zone, the Life Burst present on it glowing.

"Oh well," sighed Akira, though Kai could easily tell the sarcasm in her voice. "I Ener Charge."

"Nehalem, attack!" As the Dragon Knight unleashed another volley of lightning from its lance, another SIGNI appeared in front of Piruluk to take the attack. The card, Servant O dropped into Akira's Trash Pile.

"Hold back all you want, but victory will still be mine," she spoke. Kai didn't say anything back in response as Tama looked up at him in worry.

"Turn end."

**End of Turn 6**

**Kai vs Akira**

**Hand - 3 : 2**

**Life Cloths - 4 : 3**

**Current LRIGs - Dragon Knight, Nehalem : Code Piruluk G**

**SIGNI: Gatling Claw Dragon - EMPTY - EMPTY : Code Art JV - Code Art PZL - EMPTY**

**Ener - 6 : 3**

"I'm not sure why you chose not to grow then, but all I can say is that it's gonna cost you, Aki-lucky," Akira sneered "I Ener Charge with JV on my field and Grow! Code Piruluk T!"

In a brief series of flashes, Piruluk's garb appeared to have changed completely, looking more stylish and having eight wings present on the back from the previous six. The blades on the orb in her hair had gotten slightly larger, but not by much.

"Summon, Code Art RMN and ASM!" Two Level 4 SIGNI to the left and right of Piruluk. Once again, Akira pointed her fingers towards Kai.

"Discard!" Code Art RMN fired a blue energy pulse that struck a random card in Kai's hand. He watched as Dragon Monk, Gojo dropped straight into his Trash Pile.

"RMN, take out Gatling Claw Dragon!" Code Art RMN materialized two blue discs of some sorts and hurled them at Gatling Claw. The attack connected, the discs exploding on contact with Gatling Claw. The card moved to Kai's Ener Zone.

"Then PZL and ADM!" The two SIGNI rained sparks down on Nehalem, electrocuting the Dragon Knight at a high voltage. Two more lights dimmed as Iron, Alluring Stone and Iron Tail Dragon entered Kai's Ener Zone.

"Now Piruluk!" The LRIG raised her hand, summoning even more ice projectiles than her previous Level was capable of doing and firing them at Nehalem.

"Wyvern Guard, Barri!" Without warning, a knight atop a mechanical wyvern appeared in front of Nehalem. A hexagonal barrier appeared in front of it, nullifying Piruluk's attack as the ice projectiles shattered on contact. The Wyvern Guard then vanished from the field, having finished its job.

"How boring," she mused "Turn end."

Over on the sidelines, Yuzuki and Hitoe let out a sigh of relief. Kai had managed to survive Akira's onslaught of attacks this far, but things were still looking grim for him. He had put himself at a disadvantage by choosing not to grow to Level 3 last turn, no SIGNI in play, only two Life Cloths left and Akira herself still had 3 cards in her hand to his 2. However, because of Akira's relentless attacks, his Ener Zone was now buffed up to 9 cards, something that he had been counting on, whether she had realized it or not by now. Piruluk however stared closely at him.

_Why did he choose to skip growing his LRIG last turn? _she pondered _There must be some reason he put himself at such a disadvantage. _Kai having somehow read her mind opened his eyes and stared across the field towards the LRIG and her Selector.

"Allow me to show you… my true form!" Kai spoke "Up and draw. Ener Charge and…"

A card from the LRIG deck flew straight past Tama and straight into the LRIG Zone, but it was face-down for the moment though.

"Grow the Vanguard! The apocalyptic flames that reduce everything in this world to ash!" As he spoke the ride chant, the card flipped face up and a large column of fire consumed Nehalem, removing him from the battle. A white Vanguard circle with a red aura to it briefly flashed in front of the column of fire. A tall shadow appeared in the flames, resembling that of a giant dragon. A pair of familiar yellow eyes were present from the shadow's head. Tama, Hitoe and Yuzuki were looking on in awe for this sight. The flames begun to disappear to reveal what Kai's Level 3 LRIG was.

"Dragonic Overlord!"

* * *

**And that's the end of Kai vs Akira Part 1! So because Kai is still new to Wixoss, most of his deck ressembles his Season 1 deck with a few Season 3 cards along with cards from Wixoss sets such as Red Ambition teched in. I hope you've enjoyed reading this chapter. Don't worry though, Part 2 of the battle and the aftermath follow up will be on its way up and I can definitely assure you that it will be up a week or two before Selector Spread Wixoss begins airing. Don't forget to favourite, follow and/or leave a review. Until then!**

**A list of the Kagero Card Readjustments can be found on my profile (will be updated as the story goes on).**


	4. Ride 03: That Flame is Eternal

**And as promised, here's Chapter 3! Hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

As the column of fire died down, Dragonic Overlord was standing tall on the LRIG space on Kai's table. The dragon was large in a dark red color and had large spikes sticking out from its shoulder armour, the edges of the chest muscles pointing forward and the front of the waistline. Several pieces of darker armour were present on the lower halves of the arms and legs as well as the dragon's waistline. The feet had two spikes on the front besides the main part of them, acting like additional toes along with a single spike that acted like an ankle. A large spike was present on the dragon's back and the tail had a small pair of red wings present near the end of it. Overlord's wings were mostly a plain colour with the same dark red trim with a large spike present on the topmost edge of each wing. The dragon's head was red with a pair of familiar yellow eyes along with what appeared to be a pair of small red wings running from the back and a spike sticking out from the top of the head. The neck mostly had a dark blackish colour.

It held a large sword in one of its claws, the hilt covered with what appeared to be small red wings. Dragonic Overlord let out a huge roar in the direction of both Akira and Piruluk who were even surprised that a dragon such as this could manifest itself as a Level 3 LRIG. Tama who was standing over beside Kai's LRIG deck could only look up at "The Wind of the Apocalypse", surprised that Kai had been hiding this from her, Yuzuki and Hitoe in their first meeting.

"Dragonic... Overlord," she breathed in awe.

"The hell is that thing?!" gasped Akira "I've never seen a LRIG that is a dragon that huge!" Piruluk could only look up at Overlord, wondering how this was even possible. _What is this? Why do I feel something strange from this Dragonic Overlord?__  
_

Meanwhile from a different part of the space that Akira and Kai were battling in, their battle had not gone unnoticed from just Yuzuki and Hitoe (including Tama as well to some extent) watching on the sidelines. Ulith was among one of the silhouetted buildings in the background, having observed the battle from the start. As she stared closely at Dragonic Overlord and remembering back to Kai's plays throughout this battle, she couldn't help but feel something in the back of her mind was piecing itself together.

_This boy scum... the one I saw earlier. Back when I thought I saw the prophecy on the cards briefly changed, _she thought _If what I saw was the truth, could he be...?_ As Ulith stared closely down at Kai's table to the left end (from her perspective), she suddenly noticed Tama standing beside his LRIG deck.

_What?! How did that little trash escape?! I was sure that 'she' made it impossible for her to appear in another card!_ Deciding to ponder on that later, she decided to continue to monitor the battle for its outcome. Seeing as Kai's opponent was Akira, she was partially looking forward to seeing her suffer again.

"Summon! Burning Horn Dragon, Wyvern Strike, Tejas and Dual Axe Archdragon!" As the three SIGNI materialized alongside and in front of Dragonic Overlord, Kai held out his hand towards the LRIG spot on the table. "Dragon of explosive flame, use your apocalyptic roar to reduce all before your presence to ash! Counterblast!" Overlord roared loudly as a whirlwind of flames surrounded the mighty dragon. 3 Red SIGNI cards flew from Kai's Ener Zone to his Trash Pile.

"And ARTS! One Rule, Two Birds!" A fiery red aura was now present around Dragonic Overlord as it roared loudly from recieving the effects of the ARTS. _It's not exactly a Critical Trigger_ Kai thought_ But it will do._ "For this turn, Dragonic Overlord gains Double Crush and you're not allowed to use any Level 1 SIGNI to guard!" Akira could only "TSK!" as the Servant O card she had began leaking sparks, indicating she couldn't use it.

"Burning Horn Dragon!" called Kai. The dragon roared and took flight towards Code Art PZL that was right in front of it. "Burning Horn's ability adds 3000 power since my LRIG has Overlord in its name!" Code Art PZL was incinerated by Burning Horn's flame breath as the card moved to Akira's Ener Zone. Kai then turned his attention to his current LRIG.

"Overlord, attack Code Art ASM!"

"You... Are you dumb or something Aki-lucky?!" sneered Akira "Have you forgetten that LRIGs ignore the SIGNI and attack the opposing LRIG instead?!"

"When I use Overlord's ability by paying the cost," Kai explained "It can attack a SIGNI this turn. Since LRIGs don't have base power, when Overlord attacks with this effect, his power is equal to that of the SIGNI it's battling. The question remains though is will you still be able guard?"

"Huh…?" Akira looked over her hand, Servant O was still leaking sparks. _I have Servant O available, but I can't use her because of the ARTS he played! Doesn't matter, I can deal with one less SIGNI as his other SIGNI can no longer attack this turn from using Overlord right now._ "Fine, whatever," she spat.

As Code Art ASM was reduced to ashes by Dragonic Overlord's Eternal Flame, Yuzuki and Hitoe looked on in worry from the sidelines. Just what was he thinking? They soon got their answer by looking at Kai's expression to see that he wasn't fazed by this. Over from where she was standing beside the LRIG deck, Tama was curious as to why Kai had decided to have Dragonic Overlord attack one of Akira's SIGNI instead of Piruluk.

"The flames of purgatory never rest," Kai spoke. Akira stared across towards him in confusion. "Stand up once more, Dragonic Overlord!"

_(Insert Music: Cardfight! Vanguard Soundtrack: Kai no Theme)_

Overlord roared loudly as it stood up again. Akira looked on in shock as she suddenly noticed on the Kai's table that several flames surrounded Dragonic Overlord's LRIG card as it suddenly upped itself. Gatling Claw Dragon then moved from his Ener Zone to his trash.

"What the hell just...?!"

"My next attack. Overlord, attack Code Art RMN!" Kai declared. Akira could only watch as her second SIGNI was burnt to ashes from Dragonic Overlord's attack. The dragon roared as it stood up again. It was ready to take another attack, this time at Piruluk.

"How the hell is Dragonic Overlord upping itself after each attack?!" Akira growled "Tell me now!"

"Dragonic Overlord's skill," Kai explained "When his ability is active during this turn, each time he attacks and banishes a SIGNI, by paying an additional Red card from my Ener Zone, he ups himself for his next attack." Akira then gasped in horror. Kai had forced her into a corner by wrecking her SIGNI formation and she had no means of stopping Dragonic Overlord's next attack.

"If I were to recall, if Overlord remained down after attacking with him without attacking with my other SIGNI first, my Attack Phase would immediatly end as those SIGNI are no longer permitted to attack," he spoke "But since Overlord is still upped at the end of that battle, I can still attack with him."

Over from the right side of his table, Tama was amazed. Kai had managed to keep his cool and here he was, turning around the battle in his favour. Over on the sidelines, Yuzuki and Hitoe could only stare at Dragonic Overlord in surprise and amazement. It was one thing to find strange that this dragon was somehow able to manifest itself as an LRIG for battle, much like the other 'LRIGs' that Kai had used, but it was even more shocking to see that he had been holding back on purpose just to use Overlord to its full potential.

"Amazing..." said Hitoe.

"Yeah," replied Yuzuki "To think he would hold back a Level just to take advantage of the Ener that he had available. Dragonic Overlord... That looks like a force to be reckoned with."

"Overlord, attack Piruluk!" Kai declared. Dragonic Overlord took flight and hovered several feet above Piruluk. The dragon unleashed a large torrent of crimson fire from its mouth which consumed the LRIG in an instant. As she struggled through the intense heat, Piruluk looked up at Overlord. Something then suddenly clicked in her head as she stared at the dragon's head.

_Those eyes..._ she thought, her mind flashing back to when she attempted to read Kai's wish _They're the same as the ones I saw in those flames! _As the crimson fire subsided, two more lights around Piruluk dimmed as Servant T2 and Code Art SMP entered Akira's Ener Zone, the last card glowing indicating a Life Burst. Akira growled as she drew her card, she wasn't expecting Dragonic Overlord to turn things around for Kai like this. Overlord flew back to and landed on the LRIG space of Kai's table, having finished its attacks.

"Turn end," he spoke.

_(End Insert Music)_

**End of Turn 8**

**Kai vs Akira**

**Hand - 0 : 2**

**Life Cloths - 2 : 1**

**Current LRIGs - Dragonic Overlord : Code Piruluk T**

**SIGNI: Wyvern Strike, Tejas (Up) - Burning Horn Dragon (Down) - Dual Axe Archdragon (Up) : EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY**

**Ener - 1 : 5**

Akira drew more cards as she stared across towards Dragonic Overlord, slightly nerved from what had just happened. _Don't screw with me! Allow me to show you that something like that Dragonic Overlord won't make you win!_ But as she began to Ener Charge, she wasn't paying close enough attention to the fact that she moved Servant D2 from her hand into her Ener Zone. Kai quickly noticed this, having seen the Guard Icon and Level that were present on the card.

"ARTS, Draw Two!" she called. As the ARTS was played, both Servant D2 and Code Art SMP moved from her Ener Zone to her trash whilst two more cards were drawn to her hand.

"Summon!" Two copies of Code ART SMP appeared alongside Piruluk whilst Code ART PZL appeared in front of her.

"I freeze Dual Axe Archdragon!" PZL summoned a blizzard that encased Dual Axe Archdragon in a chunk of ice. Akira's lips formed another malicious smile. "Then... ICE BREAK!" As the Spell was cast, a blue beam struck the frozen Dual Axe Archdragon, obliterating it in an instant. The card reappeared in Kai's Ener Zone.

"Attack!" called Akira. Kai didn't respond as Burning Horn Dragon and Tejas were defeated instantly from the attacks that came before them. The cards moved over to his Ener Zone. The second Code ART SMP's attack hit Dragonic Overlord as Dual Axe Archdragon was no longer present. The second to last Life Cloth moved to his Ener Zone, revealing itself to be another Gatling Claw Dragon. The card glowed showing that Kai triggered a Life Burst.

"Got a Life Burst," he spoke "Draw."

"Next! Piruluk!" Piruluk summoned more ice projectiles and fired them at Dragonic Overlord. The dragon shrieked in pain as the icicles crashed into him. Kai's last Life Cloth entered his Ener Zone and it was glowing. It was another Seal Dragon, Artpique.

"Got another Life Burst. Draw."

"Turn end." Akira looked back at Servant O that was still in her hand. _With this formation, victory is assured in the next turn!_

**End of Turn 9**

**Kai vs Akira**

**Hand - 2 : 1**

**Life Cloths - 0 : 1**

**Current LRIGs - Dragonic Overlord : Code Piruluk T**

**SIGNI: EMPTY- EMPTY - EMPTY : Code Art SMP - Code Art PZL - Code Art SMP**

**Ener - 6 : 3**

Kai looked over his field as a breeze swept over the dimensional space. Before he could think of anything else, he suddenly felt a strange vibe. He looked over to the LRIG space where Dragonic Overlord was standing. Suddenly, as if he felt his eyes and ears were playing tricks on him, the dragon turned its head back slightly. Its gaze was directed towards him and it seemed to speak a mere few words.

"Let's win, my Vanguard..." Kai though unsure of how this was possible, nodded in agreement. He looked back over the cards in his Ener Zone and the only card in his hand, before ushered two words that he hadn't spoke of in a while. He had put himself off from using them constantly, but he felt that from what happened thus far, especially with a near death experience from earlier before the battle, Akira had it coming to her.

"Final Turn!"

Several gasps and shocked expressions appeared on everyone else that was present in the battle. Dragonic Overlord just remained expressionless, saying nothing more. Over from where she was watching, Ulith simply just stared across at him in partial disbelief, not sure of what to make from this sudden declaration.

"F...Final Turn…? What are you getting at Aki-lucky?! I still have a field full of SIGNI and 1 Life Cloth! If you're saying that you'll win in this turn or something, you're dead wrong!" Akira spat. However, deep down, she was feeling uneasy from his words just now. He had played flawlessly with little effort and it was only his first ever Selector Battle.

"Up and draw," Kai spoke "Ener Charge and Summon!" Another Dual Axe Archdragon along with Silvan, Alluring Stone and Blue Ray Dracokid appeared alongside and in front of Dragonic Overlord.

"ARTS, Dominating Fury! I banish the Code Art SMP in front of Dual Axe Archdragon!" As the ARTS was cast, Dragonic Overlord unleashed a torrent of flames at the specified Code Art SMP, incinerating the SIGNI in an instant. Kai then turned his attention back to Piruluk who he could now get two attacks on to win the battle.

"Now to my Attack Phase," he said.

"Not so fast!" replied Akira "ARTS, Don't Move!" As three cards from her Ener Zone moved to her Trash, Piruluk summoned a blizzard that forced down both Dual Axe Archdragon and Silvan.

"With this, you won't be able to attack with those two SIGNI this turn!" she sneered "I won't lose any SIGNI this turn and block Overlord's attack. Then in my next turn, Piruluk will finish you off! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" As Akira burst out into hysterical laughter, Hitoe and Yuzuki could only watch on in worry. But as they looked back at Kai, they suddenly found him to be smiling. Tama noticed this as well, curious as to why he was smiling at a time like this.

"Now that your ARTS and Ener have been used up," he spoke "Your defeat is sealed."

Akira stopped laughing and looked back at him. "What are you talking about?" she sneered "Your Final Turn or whatever it was ended up being a complete waste!"

"I'll use my own ARTS! One more, Dominating Fury!" Kai declared "With this, I can banish the only SIGNI left that's standing between Blue Ray Dracokid and Piruluk." Akira's eyes then widened in horror. Her ARTS had proved to be of no help and now she had left herself wide open. Kai pointed at the other Code ART SMP that was in front of Blue Ray Dracokid as the SIGNI vanished in an eruption of flames. Akira looked down on the last line of defence she had left, Servant O.

_I can still protect myself! There's no way he'll have another copy of..._

"Not yet," replied Kai.

"Huh?"

"I still have one more ARTS left to play," he spoke "One more, One Rule, Two Birds!"

_(Insert Music: Cardfight! Vanguard: Unreleased Soundtrack)*****_

Akira then realized what this meant. Her Servant O which was her only means to stopping Dragonic Overlord was useless and she was out of Life Cloths. Overlord roared loudly from gaining the power of the ARTS again.

"But... this means... No! You can't!" But as the ARTS was played, it was clear from Kai's smile that he just did.

"This was possible from your own actions," he spoke "Look at your Trash Pile and remember back from what happened from last turn." Akira growled and looked back at her Trash. Then, sudden realization hit her hard.

**Flashback**

After drawing at the start of her turn, Akira placed Servant D2 in her Ener Zone. Then, when she used the Draw Two ARTS, she used Servant D2 as part of the cost.

**Present**

Akira then looked down on Servant O, realizing her mistake.

_Impossible... I made a misplay?! If I had just put Servant O in my Ener Zone instead, then...!_

Piruluk having noticed this could only sigh. She then turned her attention back to Kai and Dragonic Overlord before closing her eyes.

"Victory is yours," she spoke. Kai nodded, having already realized that before starting his turn.

"Blue Ray Dracokid attacks!" The small blue dragon aimed at Piruluk with its blaster and opened fire. As the flaming projectiles struck the LRIG, the final light dimmed. Another Code Art RMN entered Akira's Ener Zone, but the Life Burst was useless as Kai had no cards in his hand to discard.

"Final attack! Dragonic Overlord, attack Piruluk!" he declared. Akira could only watch in horror as Dragonic Overlord flapped its large wings and took to the air, ready to finish the battle. Fire was already beginning to form in the dragon's mouth.

"Take this! The apocalyptic flames that reduce everything in this world to ash! Eternal Flame!" Dragonic Overlord let out a huge torrent of crimson fire towards Piruluk who just stood in place, not moving an inch. Akira then raised her fist in anger and frustration.

"Just who the hell are you?!" she demanded. Kai just stared intensely over towards her and Piruluk.

"Kai Toshiki," he replied before closing his eyes "That is all." The attack from Dragonic Overlord then consumed Akira's table in a large blaze of fire. She no longer had any Life Cloths present when the attack hit, winning Kai the game. When the intense blaze had subsided, Piruluk was on her knees, her garb being charred from the intense heat of Dragonic Overlord's Eternal Flame.

"Akira," spoke Kai "You lose." Said Selector could only look down at her table in shame, mostly from the fact that she made a simple mistake that allowed him to come back from behind and pull an upset in front of her own eyes. Over on the sidelines, Hitoe and Yuzuki could only look on in awe. Akira had not just been beaten by a first timer in a Selector Battle, but this Selector was also a boy and despite his limited knowledge of the game, it looked as if he had played with those cards all his life through experience.

"Kai... won?" Hitoe murmured.

"Yeah," replied Yuzuki "To think he managed to see through Akira's misplay like that and still win. More importantly, to think he was holding back to use Dragonic Overlord to wreck her formation before dealing the final blow." She then put her hand to her chin as she went deep into thought. _Kai Toshiki... Just what kind of person are you?_

Down on Kai's table, Tama could only look up at Dragonic Overlord in amazement as it hovered back down to the LRIG space. Despite Kai not needing much of her help to win the battle, it didn't matter if it meant seeing the dragon in action. "Those LRIGs are nothing that Tama has ever seen," she spoke in awe "Dragonic Overlord… amazing…" With the battle now over, the red color in Kai's half of the space covered the background of the entire battlefield before everything suddenly went dark, surprising him.

_(End Insert Music)_

* * *

When the group came to their senses, they were back in the city park exactly from where they were standing, Yuzuki and Tama having returned back to their respective cards. Akira was now kneeling on the floor in shame. She briefly glanced backwards to a particular spot and trudged her way over. Meanwhile, Kai pulled out Tama's card from his blazer pocket.

"Cool!" she called "Dragonic Overlord was so strong! Tama likes Kai's play!" Hitoe walked up to Kai.

"C...Congratulations Kai!" she said with a smile as Tama let out a cry of joy for his victory.

"That was amazing!" called Yuzuki from her card. Kai nodded and then turned to where Akira was. But he turned just in time to see her grab ahold of the knife she had threw at him and Hitoe earlier before their proper introductions. Kai quickly slipped Tama's card back into his blazer pocket before bracing himself for what could happen next.

"Screw this!" Akira yelled as she charged towards him. Hitoe and Yuzuki gasped in horror and closed their eyes, awaiting for the bloody aftermath to follow. However, as a few seconds passed, it was soon clear to them that never came to be. They opened their eyes to see in shock that Kai had managed to swiftly grab ahold of Akira's wrist, forcing her to drop the knife. She continued to struggle, but Kai's grip on her wrist was too powerful as he held her up in the air. He stepped forward onto the blade of her knife, crushing it into pieces. With her only weapon gone, Akira had no way to escape Kai's grip. She turned her head to face him and lost all composure as she looked into his now fierce eyes.

"Leave now!" he spoke, glaring intensely at her. Akira realizing she was out of options could only nod in agreement. Kai simply huffed as he let her go. Akira got back up and began to run away from the group but not before looking back at him.

"Mark my words Kai-lucky!" she yelled "This isn't over!" By then, she was out of sight. Hitoe and Yuzuki could only let out a sigh of relief that Kai didn't get seriously hurt or injured for that matter. He pulled out Tama's card from his pocket.

"Thank you for your help Tama," Kai said.

"Mhm! Tama says Kai's welcome!" she replied "Tama would like to see Kai and Overlord battle again soon!"

"Yeah," said Yuzuki "Besides, where did you happen to get cards like that?"

"... I don't know how I got them," he answered "All I know is that I feel as though I have used them before, yet this is definitely my first game of Wixoss." Although his answer to her question wasn't entirely true, he knew it was unlikely that Tama, Yuzuki and Hitoe would believe him for the moment if he had just told them that his LRIGs and some of his SIGNI were units that originally existed from a different planet and were depicted as cards from another game. Still, he couldn't help but wonder how exactly Dragonic Overlord was briefly able to communicate with him before he declared his Final Turn. Whilst he was thinking it over, that was when Hitoe remembered something.

"Oh right! I was supposed to be home about an hour ago!" she gasped in realization "Thank you again Kai! Um… if it isn't too much trouble, could you escort me home? I know Akira's now gone, but I'm still feeling uneasy."

"I understand," Kai answered "Lead the way." Hitoe smiled and starting walking a little distance in front of him. As Kai walked with her, unbeknownst to them, Ulith stepped out of the shadows and watched both Selector and Cardfighter walk out of the park together.

"So that boy scum is a Selector," she murmured, her mind flashing back to when the prophecy on the back of the Wixoss cards briefly changed for a few seconds and then to the battle when she witnessed Dragonic Overlord, wondering if it was related to "the flames of perdition" that the changed prophecy mentioned. "Kai Toshiki. Could he be the one the changed text referred to?" Netherless, she took out the card that she was formerly inside of during her time as an LRIG (now empty from her absence) and held it to the ground.

"Open!" A brilliant flash erupted from the ground for a brief moment as Ulith disappeared from the park, without anyone seeing her vanish without a trace.

* * *

**And so, that's the end of Chapter 3. Kai may have entered a new world, to which he doesn't know of yet and stepped into the Selector Battles having found Tama, but some of his lucksacking still remains, this time with Life Bursts. Ulith having observed his battle is now aware that Tama has somehow ended up in his possession and is looking to take measures against him. Besides, I couldn't resist making that Kai-lucky pun since Kai and Aki are the exact same letters rearranged. Don't forget to follow, favourite and/or leave a review! Next chapter will be coming up soon, but I thought I'd just warn you. Once that next chapter is up, from that chapter onwards, the updates will be extended to monthly at the minimum so I can get some ideas from what happens from the actual storyline of Selector Spread Wixoss as I watch them. Until then!**

***If you're wondering about which unreleased soundtrack I'm referring to, it's the one that plays in Episode 192 when Kai rides Perdition Imperial Dragon, Dragonic Overlord the Great.**


	5. Ride 04: This World is Not My Own

**And so without further adieu, this is the last chapter there is before we get down into the some of the stuff that happens during Selector Spread Wixoss. So to answer your question kineke13, I am definitely thinking of including maybe 2 or 3 more clans, I'm not sure which ones I will include until later on into the story. In the meantime, please enjoy.**

* * *

Later that night, after a long trek through the city streets, both Kai and Hitoe eventually arrived outside of the Uemura household, Hitoe's home. During their trek, the two of them had deep thoughts over what had happened in the evening. Kai from finding out he had somehow ended up in a place that he was not familiar with and his old Kagero deck somehow coming back into his possession, only it was adapted to the rules of Wixoss with several changes among it. In addition, he still couldn't help but ponder over how he could see LRIGs like Tama who had somehow come into his possession after looking around the tallest building in the city where unbeknowst to him, until his first meeting with Hitoe and Yuzuki, was the place where everything changed for Kominato Ruuko along with her sudden disappearance from the group's social life, thanks to Iona.

Hitoe meanwhile was thinking back to how she and Yuzuki first met Kai and shivered slightly at the thought of how Akira had almost had her at her mercy again. Thinking back over the battle, she couldn't help but admire his bravery in the face of the danger that the Selector Battles held. Deep down though, she still was worried for Ruuko, but her spirits were slightly lifted after Kai revealed that Tama was now in his current possession and was willing to help both her and Yuzuki find their lost friend. Yuzuki almost had the exact same thoughts as Hitoe, only she had raised curiousity in Kai's Kagero units, wondering how it was possible that the many creatures among the clan, Dragonic Overlord in particular, could manifest themselves as LRIGs to battle for him. During their trek over to the Uemura household, Yuzuki had asked if she could see Dragonic Overlord's card. Kai showed the card to her and her curiousity only got deeper when the card that was shown looked like any other LRIG that did not belong to a Selector, yet despite all that, she could still feel a strange presence from the card that maybe Kai was aware of.

When the Selector and Cardfighter arrived outside of the steps to the front door, Hitoe turned around to Kai who had Tama's card held out in front of him.

"Thank you again Kai," she said.

"Don't worry about it," he replied "I hope I haven't caused too much trouble for you arriving home late."

"Everything should be fine," said Yuzuki "I'm sure Hitoe's mom will understand." Kai nodded, though he still had something to ask them.

"Besides, how will I know where to find you tomorrow?" he asked.

"Oh don't worry!" called Tama "If Tama can feel Yuzuki nearby, Kai can find Hitoe no problem!"

"I got it," he replied before turning to walk away.

"See you tomorrow Kai!" called Hitoe. Kai waved a hand back to say goodbye as she went in through the front door. Once the door had closed, Kai turned his attention back to his current dillema. It was late at night, in a city he was completely unfamiliar with, which meant that finding a place to stay for the night was going to be a challenge at this time. As much as he didn't want to stay out in the open, until he could find a better option tomorrow in the daylight, he had to find someplace to sleep. Before he did so, he took out his mobile phone he had to try and get through to Miwa to let him know of his dillema. But when he attempted to make the call, the only reply he recieved was the number not being in service. Kai just stood there confused, if anyone knew him better than Aichi, it would have to be Miwa. But why was his mobile not picking up on his signal? Did something happen to his friend?

Kai shook his head clear of that thought. Just to be sure of himself, he attempted to call through to Foo Fighter Headquarters. As much as the thought of calling Ren in this scenario sounded less plausible, especially at this time of night, he had to be sure that he could still contact someone that he knew well. But to his disappointment, Ren's number didn't appear to be in service as well. This was starting to feel strange for him. Just why couldn't he remain in contact with the people he knew well whilst he was stranded in a city he knew almost nothing about. Then, something started to click in the back of his head. Flashing back to when he found that his cards had somehow been altered to adapt to Wixoss, he started to remember something that happened to him earlier that day concerning his sudden arrival, being able to picture what had happened back then.

_That's right! When I was walking to Card Capital earlier today among a quiet street, a Vanguard Circle suddenly appeared beneath my feet in a blinding flash. After that, I somehow ended up blacking out. Then I woke up outside of this place, eventually finding out my deck had changed. If this place is not as familiar as I thought, then..._

"Is Kai alright?" Tama asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"Yeah," replied Kai "Sleeping outside has not been one of my more favourable ideas, but it will be easier to find a place to stay when it hits daylight tomorrow." Tama nodded, unsure of what to make of this. Most of the time at night, her card had always been indoors in Ruuko's room back at her apartment, but she never had slept inside her card in the outdoors. Nonetheless, she yawned loudly as she began to drift off to sleep. Kai noticed this, staring at her briefly before slipping her card back into his blazer pocket. He then walked back to the park, remembering seeing a bench present there before Hitoe had bumped into him then. By the time he reached the park, the moon was already partway in the sky, indicating that it was already very late into the night and the park was very quiet, not a person or Selector for that manner present in the vicinity. Kai then walked over to the nearest bench and lay back down on it, looking up at the night sky and thinking about how the day had played out for him.

_I don't recall of how I came to be in this very city, now having dragged myself into a conflict beyond most peoples' imagination. But what matters for the moment is to keep my word to Tama and reunite her with Kominato Ruuko so I can hopefully find some more answers into these Selector Battles._

Kai stared up at the stars in the sky for a few more moments before he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

**'The White Room'**

"So this Kai Toshiki you speak of Ulith, he is now somehow a participant in the Selector Battles?"

"That is right, Mayu."

Deep inside a mysterious large room with a bright white glow to it, known only to LRIGs and those who became Eternal Girls, a conversation of important matters was already taking place. The room was strange in design, with multiple gate like structures appearing in the walls all around the two people that were in their discussion. Ulith was speaking to someone who was sitting on a large throne, colored in an almost negative like hue. The other being, named "Mayu" was conversing with her over the discussion of the day's recent events, particuarly regarding Kai's arrival and sudden entrance into the Selector Battles. What intrigued Mayu the most was how Tama had managed to end up in his possession and that seemed to partially trouble her.

"More importantly, how the hell was Tama able to escape this place into that boy scum's hands?!" exclaimed Ulith. Mayu as if to answer her question without speaking summoned a brilliant glow from behind her throne, to Ulith's right. There, right in front of her own eyes was someone shackled to a stone slab about two thirds of the height of Mayu's throne. The person in question was clearly male, evidenced by his weak groan. He wore a white shirt with long sleeves and trousers of the same color. The person had white hair with a green striped mark on his forehead and his arms and legs were fasted to the slab by several locks.

_(Insert Music: Cardfight! Vanguard Unreleased Soundtrack: Raul Serra's Theme)_

"Who the hell is this trash?" Ulith asked.

"The person that aided in Tama's escape," answered Mayu "I'm unsure as to how he arrived in this place, but I have taken away most of his powers as a precaution to prevent him from breaking himself free." The boy weakly opened his yellow eyes, noticing both Ulith and Mayu in front of him. He could still remember it clearly of how he ended up in this situation.

**_Flashback_**

Earlier, the boy had somehow teleported himself into the 'White Room'. Whilst traveling back from the Planet Cray to Earth after dealing with the messenger of Link Joker, he somehow heard a desperate cry for escape from someplace else. Deciding to investigate, he teleported himself to the source of the noise and that was how he came to be in this situation. Walking around his limited path available to him, he eventually came across Tama, who had been feeling down after being denied the chance to return back to Ruuko to sort things out with her. After Iona had completed her contract to become an Eternal Girl, she abruptly disappeared from her original card and ended up back in this place. When Mayu held her trapped within one of the gates, she desperately pleaded with her to return back to Ruuko. Sadly for Tama, it was to no avail as Mayu had left her on her own. The boy then walked over to the gates that Tama were imprisoned inside and looked down at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Tama looked up him, unsure of how to answer.

"Tama wants to go back," she answered, partially sobbing. Something then clicked in the boy's head, this was the voice he had been hearing before he arrived at this place.

"I heard you cries before I arrived here," he said "How did you end up like this?" Before Tama could try and answer his question, she turned and suddenly gasped. The boy turned as well and suddenly saw Mayu before him.

"An intruder," she spoke "You will be dealt with swiftly." Before she could do anything else, the boy suddenly held out his arm to the gates surrounding Tama as the green mark glowed brightly on his forehead, brielfy blinding Mayu in the process. The gates suddenly shattered around Tama as she looked up at the boy.

"Run! Quickly!" he called. Tama nodded and got up to her feet. She quickly made a run for the nearest passageway whilst she still had a chance. When Mayu had regained her sight, she tried to seal the other gates as fast as she could, preventing the boy from joining Tama in her desperate attempt to escape in the result. But Tama was already gone from the 'White Room' by the time the final gate was sealed, by just a fraction of a second. She glared at the boy, not pleased with his actions.

"Just who are you and why did you imprison her?!" he asked. Mayu, rather answering his question held out a hand in front her as a strange dark aura suddenly appeared. A beam from the dark aura suddenly struck the boy, almost like it was somehow impaling him. As he fell to the ground, before he completely lost consciousness, he suddenly had a terrifying thought cross his mind.

_That power... It can't be... _Those were the last thoughts he had before he blacked out. When he reawakened, he found himself shackled to the slab that he was now bound to. Mayu stood in front of him, displeased by the recent events that he caused.

"W... Why is 'that' power with you?!" the boy demanded "Don't you realize you're endangering your entire world with it?!"

"That is not of my concern," replied Mayu "What matters is that I will fix the mess that you just caused." She held out her hand as a dark aura suddenly surrounded the boy, causing him great pain. He suddenly felt even weaker as his power was suddenly being drained over to Mayu.

_If this world falls into that 'same' chaos, then I must call apon a strong fighter now!_

The mark that was on his forehead suddenly glowed even brighter as it ever had done before. When the glow eventually subsided, he passed out again. Unbeknowst to him, Mayu had taken the opportunity to drain more of his power.

_(End Insert Music)_

**_Back to the present_**

"I see," murmed Ulith "This boy scum just put the 'system' on the brink of collapse! If Kai reunites that LRIG trash with that Selector scum and boots off Iona from her possession, then..."

"That is no longer of any concern," spoke Mayu. Ulith just stared at her in confusion as she looked out to one of the open gateways in the 'White Room'. "I have faith in Iona's abilities as Ruuko's new LRIG. She will not fall as easily as you may think." Mayu then turned back to Ulith.

"Ulith, I want you to monitor Kai Toshiki, but do not engage him," she spoke "Unless we are certain he will pose a threat to the 'system'." Ulith nodded before Mayu opened a portal for her to return back to the world, but not the one that Kai was familiar with. As the portal closed, she glanced back at the boy she had imprisoned who weakly glared at her. He held his head down as he went deep into thought.

_Kai Toshiki... So you were the one I ended up summoning... Everything is now... in your hands..._

* * *

**Kai's Dreamscape**

Kai had somehow found himself in a dark environment. The city all around him felt the same as the one he had ended up in earlier in the day. Crimson dark colors were present all around the sky and the buildings themselves looked like they were falling into ruin. Kai looked around to see several shadowy figures rush past him. Some of them clashed with one another. What caught his attention the most was what he saw on the backs of a few of the shadows that caught his eyes and it looked horrifyingly familiar. As he looked up to the sky, just above the tallest building in the city, the strange object he saw there had already confirmed his suspicions.

_It's them! But how is this...?!_

Before Kai could finish processing that thought, he heard a disgusting morphing like noise from behind him. He turned around and saw the monstrousity that was now in front him. Whatever it was that he was seeing, it looked like Tama, only mutated into this thing. The Tama lookalike raised its head and looked directly at Kai with a creepy smile. Kai could only gasp in horror as whatever he had just seen was advancing swiftly towards him.

* * *

**Back in the city park...**

Kai's eyes suddenly went wide awake as he shot upwards from the park bench, sweating heavily from the experience that he had just witnessed. He looked up to see that the sun was already beginning to rise partway into the morning sky.

_A nightmare... _he thought _But, why do I feel it is some sort of premonition? If that's the case..._

His thoughts were interrupted as he heard Tama's loud yawn coming from his blazer pocket. He took out her card to see her waking up from her sleep.

"Good morning," he spoke.

"Mhm!" she called "Did Kai sleep well?" She suddenly noticed his concerned look, unaware of the nightmare that he had just woken up from.

"Tama, have you ever had what we call a 'bad dream'?" asked Kai.

"Um... Tama doesn't think so..." she pondered, unsure of what to make from his question "Why does Kai ask?"

"It's nothing," he said, trying to keep the details of what he experienced disclosed from her. Tama though unsure of this, believed him for the moment. She then beamed a smile again to try and cheer him up. Before the two could think of anything else, they suddenly heard a large growling sound coming from somewhere near them. Kai, realizing what this was, could only close his eyes in embarassment.

"What is it Kai?" asked Tama.

"It appears my stomach has grown hungry since my arrival in this place," said Kai, realizing he hadn't had anything to eat since arriving in the city. He then got up from the bench.

"Wait in my pocket until I have caught up on breakfast," he spoke.

"Mhm!" replied Tama. Kai nodded before slipping her card back into his blazer and leaving the park to find a place to eat.

* * *

**_One hour later..._**

By the time that Kai had managed to calm down his stomach, he was wandering around a different part of the city that he didn't get the chance to explore earlier. Thinking over the possibility of why he couldn't contact his friends last night, he was relieved to find that his allowance worked in the same currency as where he came from, otherwise he would have been in serious trouble. It was slightly more crowded than it was on the streets he explored yesterday. People were bustling about from different buildings and malls present in the streets he wandered down. When he eventually came to sit down on a nearby bench for a brief rest, a few minutes later, he held out Tama's card in front of him.

"Can you sense Yuzuki from here?" asked Kai. Tama closed her eyes, went deep into thought for a few moments and then nodded.

"I can feel Yuzuki and Hitoe nearby!" she called. Before Kai could get up and begin walking, Tama continued, pointing her hand like a compass arrow for the card. "Right over there!" He looked over the many people around on the streets to see Hitoe among them. He got up from the bench and walked over to her. Hitoe herself looked over in Kai's direction and saw him coming towards her.

"Hello Kai!" she called. Over from her card, Yuzuki saw him and waved. Kai nodded and held out Tama's card before him.

"Did you two manage to find out anything about Ruuko's whereabouts?" he asked. Sadly, Hitoe and Yuzuki shook their heads in defeat.

"Sorry Kai," said Hitoe "We looked around earlier this morning, but we couldn't find her anywhere."

"What's more pressing is that I can't track her at all," spoke Yuzuki "Iona must be somehow blocking her Selector Rights from us. I guess she somehow knows you have Tama in your hands." Tama could only let out a sad sigh, knowing that they weren't getting any closer to finding Ruuko.

"I see," said Kai "Since Iona has recently become a new LRIG for Ruuko, it may take some time before her new Selector Rights become present." Yuzuki then looked up at him.

"Um Kai," she spoke "I hope this doesn't sound troubling to you or anything and I know we don't want to end up facing one another in a Selector Battles thanks to our truce, but I was wondering if Hitoe and I could quickly take a look at your deck?" Before Hitoe could protest to Yuzuki's question so she would not get on Kai's nerves, he had already brought out his Kagero deck.

"Here," he said, handing it over to Hitoe. She fanned through the cards that were present before her, seeing the cards that Kai had used against Akira as well some others that he had not used yet. Yuzuki looked over the deck and pondered deep in thought. After nodding, she motioned for Hitoe to return the deck back to Kai, to which she did so.

"Is something wrong?" asked Kai.

"Not really," replied Yuzuki "I have noticed you seem to lack a Level 4 LRIG and you don't seem to have any Spells in your deck, but knowing your skill, I don't think it really matters." She paused for a moment to think over something before continuing. "When I looked over at the LRIGs you had, I could feel something from them. It felt like they had the Wixoss factors that both Selectors and their LRIGs pick up on over battles, but at the same time, it felt like they weren't LRIGs at all. Then of course, I noticed that despite being different cards, they all have the same LRIG type, Kagero." Hitoe and Tama could only look at both Yuzuki and Kai in confusion, not quite getting at what she was trying to say, but Kai felt as though she was somewhat putting the pieces together. The LRIG of Hitoe looked up at him.

"I will ask again like I did last night," she said "How did you obtain those cards?"

Kai now thinking about the conclusion he came down to last night when he couldn't get in contact with either Miwa or Ren and remembering back as to how he ended up in this unfamiliar place, felt it was time that he explained everything to Tama, Hitoe and Yuzuki.

"This may be difficult for you to believe or to accept, much like myself," he spoke "But this world, is not the one I come from." Hitoe and Tama gasped whilst Yuzuki could only stare up at him in disbelief. She was finding it hard to believe that he was just saying that he came from a different world. But then again, if the concept of other worlds was possible, especially with the existence of the 'White Room' that she and Tama had visited on seperate occasions, maybe Kai was teling the truth.

"Go on," she motioned.

"As for your curiousity about my cards," Kai continued "You're right that they aren't exactly 'LRIGs'. The truth is that they exist from a different game that I am more familiar with."

"What game?" asked Tama.

"Cardfight Vanguard," he answered "The cards that were unfamiliar to you represented units from a planet similar to the world I have come from along with this world to some extent. That planet is known as Cray." To Tama, along with Yuzuki and Hitoe, the answers to the mystery behind his cards were beginning to unravel before them.

"So those creatures are from this 'Planet Cray'?" asked Hitoe.

"I'm not so sure," replied Yuzuki "I mean, he said his cards represented the units from the planet. I'm not sure if his LRIGs would be the actual creatures... Unless..."

"That's what I was curious about myself," said Kai "Normally in the game, the Cardfighters picture themselves on the surface of Cray as astral spirits in the form of Vanguards as on the surface of the planet. I have been wondering if the same effect somehow ended up being vice-versa for the Kagero units becoming my 'LRIGs'..."

"Then the Wixoss factors must be somehow allowing your units' astral spirits to materialize in their true forms!" she gasped. Hitoe and Tama were surprised. It was strange enough that Kai had come down to the conclusion that he was from another world entirely, but his cards were actually were from a different game and the units they represented were summoned from Cray to battle for him. That was when Tama had a question of her own to ask.

"Um Kai, what is Kagero?" she asked.

"Kagero is one of the clans of Cray," he answered "And it's one that I'm most familiar with. I have used other clans as well. Royal Paladin, Narukami and..." He then paused as he held his head down before continuing. "One other clan." Tama, Yuzuki and Hitoe were confused. Just what was with his brief pause. Then, Hitoe remembered back to when Kai told them about the desire of pursuing his own wish, regardless of who he hurt to obtain it, eventually coming out of it with regret.

"Does it have something to do with that wish you said you once went after?" she asked. Kai partially sighed, but he knew he had to tell them.

"Yes it does," he said "The clan I used to pursue my desire of becoming the strongest Vanguard Fighter, was Link Joker."

_(Insert Music: Cardfight! Vanguard Unreleased Soundtrack: Link Joker Theme)_

As Kai finished his sentence, all the memories he had of wielding the clan came rushing back to him.

"What's Link Joker?" asked Yuzuki.

"Link Joker is an evil clan," said Kai "It is the avatar of a supernatural presence known as the Void. It has existed for millions of years, bringing ruin apon dozens of worlds, reducing them to nothingness. I knew this clan was one I shouldn't have used, but I let my desire to surpass Aichi and Ren get the better of me. As a result, I ended up killing off the person I used to be before I wielded the clan." Yuzuki having listened closely could see now why he was hesitant to reveal this particular bit of information about himself. Thinking back over past events, she remembered that in her efforts to try and get across her true feelings to her brother Kazuki, she had to heavily rely on her former LRIG Hanayo to make her wish come true. And in the end, the result was betrayal from the LRIG because of Mayu's dominance over the Selector Battles. She could see that she was somewhat in the same boat as Kai, both had gone to great lengths to obtain their desires, only she couldn't just spit out her dillema to anyone for one reason, the only person knowing about this being Ruuko herself. Her wish overall would have meant jumping into the boundaries of forbidden love and she knew about the heavy backlash from other people that she and Kazuki would suffer from this. Focusing her attention back to the group's discussion, Yuzuki decided to worry about that topic for a later time, considering she thought that Hitoe and Kai would somehow find out eventually.

"I see," she said "So you've been carrying a heavy burden."

"That's right," replied Kai "If Aichi hadn't brought me to my senses back then, then I'm sure that I wouldn't have stood before you as of now."

"So, what exactly happened when you used Link Joker?" asked Hitoe.

"I traveled across my world," he explained "Reversing Cardfighters as if it meant nothing to me, as long as I would surpass both Aichi and Ren. Link Joker in the game is dangerous due to their nature of locking units to gain more of an advantage on the battlefield. Although your world has its own fair share of chaos with the dark nature of the Selector Battles, Eternal Girls and LRIGs, you should be thankful that evil I made so many people back home experience firsthand has not descended here. I wouldn't want to imagine if the Selectors and LRIGs were to face that power whilst also having to not just worry about losing 3 times." As a harsh breeze whistled across the place from where Kai and Hitoe were standing, a sudden chill ran down her spine, as well as Yuzuki's.

Over from her card, Tama could only stare up at him. He had just openly admitted that he once almost destroyed his own world with an evil power to fufill his desire of surpassing this Aichi and Ren. Taking that into thought and thinking back to several occasions she had witnessed with Ruuko breaking down over the fact that she was slipping into her secret desire of enjoying the Selector Battles, despite the pain that they brought to anyone else in her path, she couldn't help but wonder if a similar scenario to Kai's was already happening because of Iona's influence as Ruuko's new LRIG. She held her head down in worry, the thought of the inevitable having already crossed her mind.

_(End Insert Music)_

"Kai, Yuzuki, Hitoe, you don't think..." she said.

"No way!" replied Yuzuki "Ruuko wouldn't enter any Selector Battles unless all of her options had been considered! We can't just give up on her like that!"

"Yeah," said Kai "I gave my word that I would return you back to her and I have no intention on going back on that promise." Tama looked up at Kai to see that he was serious in what he said and could only give out a large smile with the knowledge that he was going to make sure that she and Ruuko were reunited with one another.

"Mhm!" she called, having cheered up now. Kai smiled a little before turning his attention back to Hitoe and Yuzuki.

"Do you know a place where I can find the means to possibly adjust my deck for whatever lies ahead?" he asked.

"I know a place where we can find a way to fix up your deck," answered Yuzuki "I've been there with Ruuko and Hitoe before." She then looked up at said Selector. "If you would kindly lead the way there?" she asked. Hitoe nodded and turned to Kai.

"Follow me," she said. Kai nodded in response before the two set out together into the streets. Over from a nearby lampost, Ulith who had been sent back to this world to monitor Kai for Mayu had listened in on every bit of their conversation.

_So this boy scum is not from this world. And his LRIGs are actually units from a different planet. How interesting..._

* * *

**And there we go! Hope you've enjoyed reading this chapter and if you've watched enough Vanguard, you'll know exactly who Mayu has imprisoned in the 'White Room'. Just to remind everyone now that from this point onwards, the minimum time I have planned for the updates will come in from either two weeks to a month, else I will post a reason as to why they will be running late. Until then, I'll see you in the next chapter and I've already revealed the name for one of Kai's next units over on the Kagero readjustments list (link in my profile, document is now enabled for you to comment). Don't forget to favourite, follow and/or leave a review!**


	6. Ride 05: That Clan is Kagero

**Hello again everybody! New chapter is finally up! Please enjoy!**

* * *

The local store known as Card Luck was not as busy as it would normally be on weekends and certain special events, particuarly those related to Wixoss as of recently. Even though most of the casual players in the store were unaware of the Selector Battles and the secrets that they held within, the game itself had recently seen an uprise in the number of female players, partially due to those circumstances. The shopkeeper was busy overlooking some of the games that were currently going on in the store at the current moment, whilst also having her mind preoccupied by a certain thought. Earlier in the morning, she seemed to notice an oddity in one of the booster box shipments that the store had recieved and she didn't want to put it up on the sale yet, unless she was absolutely certain that the set was legitimate. Her preoccupied thoughts were interrupted when she heard some footsteps over from the stairs that led to the bottom floor of the building. She then turned to see Hitoe enter the store with Kai walking behind her.

"Oh, welcome Hitoe-san," she greeted.

"Hello," replied Hitoe. The shopkeeper greeted her with a kind nod before looking over to Kai.

"So who is this person you've brought along?" she asked.

"My name is Kai Toshiki," he replied "I am currently a novice into the game of Wixoss. Hitoe told me I could come here if I needed to find a way to fix up my deck." Hitoe blushed a little inside. Though Kai had said it out to cover up the details of Yuzuki's current state, it was Yuzuki's idea to head over to Card Luck in the first place and she was a little embarrassed for taking credit where it wasn't due.

"Well, you've come to the right place," replied the shopkeeper "So what kind of LRIG do you specialize in your deck?"

"Kagero," he answered. The shopkeeper suddenly froze a little at the mention of that name. Kai noticed this.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"N... no," she replied "Its just that, earlier today, we had an oddity in our shipment and now that I think about it, I definitely remember seeing the name Kagero somewhere within the shipping details. Hold on a second." She reached down behind the counter and eventually came back up holding a single box of Wixoss on the front counter now. The box had the Wixoss logo imprinted on the front face with a crimson fiery red colour in the background and the words "Flames of Purgatory" imprinted beneath the logo. Looking at the top face of the box, Kai could already see several units that he was already familiar. Staring closely, he could recognize those units as "Vortex Dragon", "Blazing Flare Dragon" and "Blazing Core Dragon" and also noticed the words "Unleash the fiery blaze of Kagero!" imprinted on the box, just above Vortex Dragon's right wing.

"I see," he murmured "So this may be the set I require to adjust my deck."

"I guess so," replied the shopkeeper "Seeing that you somehow know something about this Kagero, I'll be kind enough to sell as many boosters as you want, at the same price as the other packs here of course." Kai then briefly glanced at the other booster sets, noticing their price tags for either a single booster or a whole box, then he took out his wallet and lay down a handful of cash on the counter.

"I'll purchase the entire box if it's alright with you," he said. The shopkeeper nodded happily as she made the transaction for Kai's payment.

_**A few minutes later...**_

Kai had opened his way through all of the packs that the single box had to offer, finding both SIGNI and LRIGs that his units had transformed into as well as several other ARTS and Spells that he could consider teching into his current deck. Needless to say, he was pretty pleased that he was getting some of his old units back by his side to aid him in his struggle to find Ruko and discover the truth behind the Selector Battles. Hitoe sat beside him whilst he went through the packs, taking great interest in some of the Kagero units that he had managed to pull from the packs. Yuzuki and Tama, having watched from their cards, noticed the pack opening as well and took greater interest into the LRIG cards he had managed to obtain.

"Kagero..." murmured Tama "Looks amazing."

"Yeah," replied Yuzuki "Kai mentioned he had used these units before in that other game he mentioned playing back in his own world. Cardfight... Um... What was the last word again?"

"Vanguard!" replied Tama.

"Right, sorry about forgetting that," she said in embarassment "Anyway, with something he's more experienced with fighting beside him, our chances of finding Ruko may have just gone up even more." Tama nodded in both excitement and agreement. Before she, Yuzuki or their respective holders could even think of anything else, she suddenly felt a chill run up her spine. Yuzuki glanced across to Tama before recieving the same feeling as well.

"I feel a Selector nearby!" she called "Heading straight for us!" Before Hitoe or Kai could even ask her about anything else...

"I found more!" called a loud voice from the bottom of the stairs. As the two turned their heads towards the exit, right in an instant, a blur had leaped all the way up the stairs into the shop room. The newcomer in the shop was shorter than Hitoe and Kai and surprisingly fast on her feet. One moment she was right by the top of the stairs and the next, she was already over by the table. Hitoe almost jumped from the sudden energy that this girl had whilst Kai remained still, slightly caught off guard by the girl's sudden arrival. She had two long braids of dark hair, each held up by a pink hairband of some sort that had the design pattern of a cartoonish skull. Her bag that she carried appeared to harbor the same design of a cartoonish skull, only it was colored white rather than pink. She wore pink goggles on her head with white rims and a very large scarf or something of the sort that she wrapped into a ridiculously large bowtie. She also wore a long pink coat over her lighter colored shirt, some yellowish colored shorts and some pink and black striped stockings under her long white boots.

"You were right Eldora!" she called "We've found more Selectors here today!" She suddenly stared across the room, then back to Hitoe and Kai, with a partially confused look. Then, she reached out in her pocket for her LRIG in question and pulled out the card.

"Eldora, I thought you said there was more that one Selector around here!" she snapped, partially annoyed by this turn of events.

"I did Chiyori," replied Eldora "There was this girl and..." The LRIG looked across her surroundings and upon looking at Kai, she suddenly found the answer to qwelll her Selector's doubts.

"So you're the LRIG that led this Selector to us," he spoke "Eldora and Chiyori were your names if I'm correct?"

"T... That's right," the LRIG answered "How is it you can see me?" Chiyori stared at Kai and could only let out a very confused "EH?!".

"I would say it would be a rare coincidence," said Kai "If I wasn't in possession of an LRIG myself." He then revealed Tama's card to make his point clear. Upon seeing Eldora, Tama greeted her with a wide smile.

"Tama says hello!" she beamed. Eldora could only greet her with a warm smile, but at the same time, she felt some sort of strange vibe. Like she somehow knew this LRIG from before, but couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"Hey Chiyori!" called Yuzuki. As Chiyori and Eldora scanned the room to find out where Yuzuki's voice had come from, Hitoe brought over the card from the table that she and Kai were sitting at. Yuzuki looked at both Eldora and Chiyori, the latter of which was surprised to see her in this state.

"Do you remember me?" she asked. Chiyori nodded to response to her question.

"Wait, you two met before?" asked Hitoe.

"But of course," answered Eldora "You were the Selector that Chiyori had her first battle with and promptly lost to." A small tick mark appeared on Chiyori's head as she pouted in annoyance. Once in a while whenever she went out to look for Selectors, Eldora would sometimes tease her about her first battle with Yuzuki with the overconfidence she had back then. As much as she found her LRIG fun to hang around with, at times she felt that Eldora could be a little annoying when she felt like it. Yuzuki then cleared her throat to try and get the conversation back onto the topic at hand.

"Chiyori," she said "If you want what's best for yourself and Eldora, turn your back on the Selector Battles now!"

"Erm... Why exactly?" asked Chiyori.

"Do you want to end up like Yuzuki?" replied Kai "Is this what you're willing to go through for the sake of winning?" Chiyori pondered for a moment, taking what Yuzuki and Kai had just said into account. Then, she finally had answer of her own.

"Oh that's right!" she replied "The Selector becomes the LRIG themself and the story continues from there!"

"Story?" pondered Tama, curious as to what she meant. Chiyori dug into her bag and pulled out a book. She showed it briefly to Kai and Hitoe before putting it back inside her bag.

"That's a novel," murmured Yuzuki "She showed one to me when we first met. Only this one is..."

"That's right!" replied Chiyori "Volume 2 to be precise! My true wish is to venture into the world of Wixoss itself!" As soon as she realized that she had said her wish out aloud however, she quickly shut her mouth in embarassment. Kai and Yuzuki could only sigh at this.

"Come to think of it, what would be a good name for me if I became an LRIG?" she pondered "Chiyorinda? Chiyoringa? Chiyo-number blah, blah, blah..." As Chiyori continued to murmur away at the prospects of becoming an LRIG whilst sharing some banter with Eldora, Hitoe and Yuzuki only looked at each other in worry. Kai had equal concern for the Selector's state of mind as well whilst Tama just stared at both the Selector and LRIG in confusion before turning to him.

"Why does Chiyori want to be an LRIG?" she asked.

"I wish I knew," he answered "But I believe that novel she is reading may hold a clue as to why." As he finished his sentence, Chiyori jumped right in front of him to his utmost surprise.

"Say "boy" Selector!" she called "What's your name?"

"Kai Toshiki," he answered.

"Would you be honored to give Chiyori a battle?" she asked. Hitoe gasped in worry whilst Tama's eyes widened in excitement, looking forward to seeing if Kai was willing to accept Chiyori's challenge.

"Wait Chiyori!" called Yuzuki "Do you really want to go through with this? How many times have you lost since our battle?!"

"Relax," she replied "My first battle was the only one I lost."

"But you haven't found many other Selectors," said Eldora "I'm not sure if challenging Kai immediatly would be wise."

"Are you saying I can't beat him?!" snapped Chiyori. Before Eldora could reply to her question, Kai got up from his seat and looked down on Chiyori.

"I will accept your challenge," he said "But are you sure you don't want to take this battle into a casual game? From what I can see, both of us are still not fully familiar with what the Selector Battles may hold." Before Chiyori could reply to his answer, Eldora had already spoken out for her.

"He does have a point," she said "It would be wise if practice would make perfect for your state." Chiyori pouted for a brief moment, annoyed that Kai was only willing to take this battle to a casual battle so the real Eldora would not be involved.

"Fine," she sighed "I will battle under those conditions. But the next time we battle each other, we will enter a Selector Battle, okay?" Kai nodded in agreement to those conditions.

* * *

A few minutes later, the two of them borrowed a double sided playmat from the shopkeeper to use for their battle and laid it down on the table. Kai and Chiyori were seated on opposite ends of the table, preparing for their casual battle whilst Hitoe watched from the center with Tama, Yuzuki and Eldora's cards held up for them to observe the battle.

"Geez," sighed Chiyori "Just battling without the real Eldora might make this a boring match."

"There may be a way for you to keep your attention focused," replied Kai.

"How so?" she asked.

"Image it," he answered "The two of us have been transported to the space where our LRIGs are prepared for battle under our command."

"Oh, I see!" called Chiyori "So you imagine yourself there to avoid from being bored of these casual battles!"

"In a sense, you're right," said Kai "Now then, are you ready?"

"Mhm!" The two then reached for their starting LRIGs on their respective ends of the playmat.

"Open!" called Chiyori.

"Open, "the" LRIG!" called Kai. As they flipped up their starting LRIGs, Chiyori briefly stared at Kai in confusion.

"Is "the LRIG" really that necessary?" she murmured. Netherless, she turned her attention back to playing the game as it was.

"Eldora=Mark 0!"

"Lizard Soldier, Conroe!"

Chiyori looked closely at the card in disbelief for a moment, having not been familiar with Kai's Kagero cards before. _Is this LRIG even legitimate? Even so, I wonder what Kai here has for this battle. _"I'll go first!" she called as she drew her card "Ener Charge and grow, Eldora=Mark 1'!" In the battle that was pictured in Kai's mind as well as Chiyori's to some extent, nothing changed much of Eldora's appearance, but the LRIG had recieved a large pink hammer with gold faces and a dark bluish pole that the barrel of the hammer was attached to._  
_

"Growing Eldora in this state will now let me discard 1 of my cards in exchange for drawing 1 more," Chiyori spoke as she performed the action that was required. "Summoning Una, Water Phantom and using her ability. I peek at the top card of my Life Cloth and leave it there."After looking at the top card of the Life Cloths she had, she looked back to Kai. "Over to you."

"So she can peek at the Life Cloths she has?" asked Hitoe.

"That's right," replied Eldora "Chiyori's deck focuses on the using my abilities as well as her SIGNI, Spells and ARTS to manipulate Life Cloths."

"I was only lucky to win my battle against her due to her inexperience at the time," said Yuzuki "But if she has gotten better, Kai may be in for a mindboggling time."

"Go Kai!" called Tama from her card.

"My turn," spoke Kai "Draw and Ener Charge. I grow Embodiment of Armor, Bahr and summon 2 Iron Tail Dragons!" In the battle pictured in his mind, Bahr appeared in the place of Conroe whilst the Iron Tail Dragons appeared both in front of the demon as well as to the left.

"My first Iron Tail Dragon attacks Una!" Chiyori moved the defeated SIGNI to her Ener Zone.

"Then my other Iron Tail Dragon attacks Eldora!" As the first Life Cloth, 'Ryuuguu, Water Phantom', moved to Chiyori's Ener Zone. She caught her eye on the black section at the bottom of the text box.

"Got a Life Burst," she said "I move one Life Cloth to my hand and put the top card of my deck in its place."

"Finally, Bahr attacks!"

"Servant O will guard!" In the battle that Kai was picturing, Servant O took the brunt of Bahr's attack whilst Eldora swung her hammer to counteract the next swipe of the demon's blade. The impact of the hammer swing knocked Bahr back to Kai's side of the field. Back to reality, Chiyori placed the Servant O card in her Trash Pile.

"Turn end," Kai spoke.

**End of Turn 2**

**Kai vs Chiyori**

**Hand - 4 : 4**

**Life Cloths - 7 : 6**

**Current LRIGs - Embodiment of Armor, Bahr : Eldora=Mark I'**

**SIGNI: Iron Tail Dragon - Iron Tail Dragon - EMPTY : EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY**

**Ener - 1 : 3**

"Yes! Now it's the heroine Chiyori's turn!" called Chiyori. Kai could only look at her in curiousity for her term 'heroine'. _She reminds me somewhat of Kamui, both are full of energy and seek an intense battle. 'Heroine...' Could her wish be...?_

"Hey, what's the matter?" she asked.

"It's nothing," replied Kai "Please continue."

"Alright then! Draw and Ener Charge!" she called "Grow, Eldora=Mark II'! Then I summon Chounan, Water Phantom!" In the battle pictured in Kai's mind, Eldora's pigtails grew longer and her hammer had vanished into thin air. Chounan appeared in front of Eldora in a kneeled stance, facing Bahr and the two Iron Tail Dragons that were present.

"With Chounan's ability," Chiyori explained "I trash a Life Cloth and add the top card of my deck in its place." She moved on of her hands over a Life Cloth of her choice and flipped it face up. The card revealed was Octo, Water Phantom before it was moved to Chiyori's Trash Pile. The top card of her deck was then placed at the top of the pile of Life Cloths. "I also summon a pair of Kozame, Water Phantoms. With their abilities, their powers becomes 5000 and Eldora's own ability powers up all of my SIGNI by 1000 at all times."

"Impressive," murmured Kai "By taking advantage of each of their abilities, you've managed to assemble a strong formation in your second turn. But this battle is far from over."

"Mhm! And now to battle!" called Chiyori "My first Kozame attacks Bahr!" In the battle pictured in their minds, Kozame unleashed a torrent of water at Bahr, knocking the demon back a few steps. Back into reality, Kai revealed his first Life Cloth.

"Blue Ray Dracokid's Life Burst!" he called "I give 5000 power to my center Iron Tail Dragon as well as the Lancer ability. Those power increases will last until the end of my next turn."

"Tsk! So Chounan can't beat the Iron Tail Dragon in front of it," pouted Chiyori "But your other one is still exposed to my other Kozame. Attack!" Kai moved the defeated Iron Tail Dragon to his Ener Zone. "Next, Eldora!"

"No guard," spoke Kai as he moved his second crushed Life Cloth, Cross Shot Garp, to his Ener Zone. No Life Burst was present on it though.

"And now, the heroine Chiyori ends her turn!" called Chiyori.

**End of Turn 3**

**Kai vs Chiyori**

**Hand - 4 : 2**

**Life Cloths - 5 : 6**

**Current LRIGs - Embodiment of Armor, Bahr : Eldora=Mark II'**

**SIGNI: EMPTY - Iron Tail Dragon - EMPTY : Kozame, Water Phantom - Chounan, Water Phantom - Kozame, Water Phantom**

**Ener - 4 : 3**

"Chiyori has taken the lead," murmured Yuzuki.

"But, she could have wrecked more of Kai's formation if she attacked the 2 Iron Tail Dragons first," replied Eldora "I'm sure she's still in over her head." _Even so, what was with that weird feeling I had from those LRIGs Kai used?_

"Battle Kai!" called Tama.

"Up and draw," spoke Kai "I Ener Charge and grow Dragon Knight, Aleph. I summon Embodiment of Spear, Tahr and pay the cost for Aleph's ability." Chiyori looked across in wonder to see what Kai was about to do next. "I move a copy of Bahr from my LRIG deck to the stack underneath my current LRIG and Tahr to my Ener Zone. By doing this, I can search my LRIG deck and grow!" Chiyori then gasped, realizing what Kai was about to perform.

"Superior Grow! Embodiment of Victory, Aleph!" Over on the imagined battlefield, both the dragon and Aleph transformed in a blinding orange glow. When it subsided, Aleph looked far more demonic that it was previously whilst the dragon's skin colour had just merely changed from orange to grey.

"You managed to get to Level 3 in only your second turn?!" gasped Chiyori.

"Impressive," murmured Yuzuki "Hitoe has a card herself that allows the same effect on me."

"Tama wonders if Kai will use Overlord at this point though," said Tama. She then turned back to the battle to see how things would play out from there.

"I use the ARTS Fiery Spring Landscape and check the top card of my deck," spoke Kai.

"Ah, I know this one!" called Chiyori "If it's a Gem or Ore SIGNI, you can draw it and 1 additional card. Will you be lucky though?" Kai flipped the top card over, revealing Alluring Stone, Silvan.

"Since Silvan is a Ore SIGNI," he spoke "I add it to my hand and draw. I then summon that SIGNI with Dual Axe Archdragon!" As Chiyori looked over Kai's field, she could only groan from the advantage he had just pulled. "First, I'll have my powered up Iron Tail Dragon attack Chounan!"

"So long," she sighed as she placed the card in her Ener Zone.

"Not yet," spoke Kai "Iron Tail Dragon still has the Lancer effect it gained from Blue Ray Dracokid's Life Burst until the end of this turn so your LRIG takes 1 damage!" Chiyori then placed the top Life Cloth she had into her Ener Zone. It was another copy of Una, but no Life Burst was present on it.

"Next, Silvan and Dual Axe will attack your other two SIGNI!" Both copies of Kozame moved to Chiyori's Ener Zone after being defeated.

"Finally, Aleph attacks!" Chiyori placed her next crushed Life Cloth, PLUS RUSH, into her Ener Zone. She smiled in joy when she noticed the Life Burst effect on the bottom of the card.

"Yes!" she called "Searching my deck for a SIGNI with a Life Burst and putting it into my hand!" She searched through her main deck and revealed Servant Q to Kai before concealing it in her hand and shuffling the deck.

"Turn end," spoke Kai.

**End of Turn 4**

**Kai vs Chiyori**

**Hand - 3 : 3**

**Life Cloths - 5 : 5**

**Current LRIGs - Embodiment of Victory, Aleph : Eldora=Mark II'**

**SIGNI: Alluring Stone, Silvan - Iron Tail Dragon - Dual Axe Archdragon : EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY**

**Ener - 3 : 5**

_(Insert Music: Cardfight! Vanguard Unreleased Soundtrack)*_

"Let's go!" called Chiyori "Draw and Ener Charge! Grow, Eldora=Mark III'!" Over on the imagined battlefield, Eldora gained a large X like structure on her back as well as a transparent azure visor and retrieving back her trusty hammer. The hammer's barrel was now mostly pink and some of the folds on her skirt had gotten longer.

"Using her ability, I look at my top two Life Cloths and put them back in any order." Chiyori picked up the topmost two Life Cloths she had and put them back in the opposite order after taking a good look at them.

"Attack!"

"No guard," spoke Kai before he moved the topmost Life Cloth he had to his Ener Zone. The card revealed was Seal Dragon, Artpique.

"Got a Life Burst," he said "Draw."

"Turn end," replied Chiyori.

**End of Turn 5**

**Kai vs Chiyori**

**Hand - 4 : 4**

**Life Cloths - 4 : 5**

**Current LRIGs - Embodiment of Victory, Aleph : Eldora=Mark III'**

**SIGNI: Alluring Stone, Silvan - Iron Tail Dragon - Dual Axe Archdragon : EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY**

**Ener - 4 : 5**

"That's strange," murmured Yuzuki.

"What's strange?" asked Tama.

"Chiyori didn't summon any SIGNI this turn," answered Eldora "Her hand must not be looking so good or she's saving something."

"I see," said Hitoe "She must be saving some SIGNI to use later when Kai has finished with his attacks."

"Up and draw. Ener Charge." Kai then looked across to Chiyori, the small Selector still holding both excitement and determination in her eyes. He then closed his eyes as he spoke towards her.

"It seems you aren't as bad as Eldora made you out to be," he said "Your deck has an interesting balance of power and manipulation. But from what I can gather, you've still got a long way to go to becoming a strong Wixoss player." Chiyori pouted a little from what Kai had to say, but she didn't let it get her down.

"So you think I could maybe...?" she asked in curiousity.

"Maybe," replied Kai "But, the world of Selectors is not forgiving as it appears. Allow me to teach you that." He then opened his eyes with fierce determination.

"Grow the Vanguard! The blazing hellfire that reduces everything in its presence to ash!" he called as he placed his new LRIG onto Aleph's card.

"Vortex Dragon!" Over on the imagined battlefield, a whirlwind of an inferno consumed Aleph, removing him from the battle before two large bluish grey wings with a very light yellow wingspan emerged from the blaze. As the flames faded out, the blazing inferno had revealed a large bluish grey dragon with dark red eyes and three pronged claws. It stared ominously at the imagined Eldora, hovering just a few feet above the ground. Back in the shop, Chiyori could only stare in confusion.

"Why would you swap out one Level 3 LRIG for a different one?" she asked "You do realize you wasted 2 Ener in doing so, right?" She then looked back at Kai to see he wasn't concerned in the slightest.

"Allow me to show you, the true power of the Kagero clan!"

* * *

**And there we go! As much as I would like Kai to show off Vortex Dragon in a Selector Battle, I don't want to interfere too much with Chiyori's current win-loss streak in the Selector Battles until I feel the time is right (as I am including some key events from Spread, even though this fic is an AU of that season). Until then, don't forget to favourite, follow and/or leave a review!**

***This soundtrack first plays at the beginning of Kai and Gaillard's first fight in Legion Mate and Miwa's last desperate attempt to beat Neve.**


	7. Ride 06: This Strength is Overwhelming

**Hi again everyone! New chapter is up after the announcement I made two days earlier. In case you didn't read it before then, I went back and revised a few things. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

As the battle between Kai and Chiyori continued to play out, those who were watching from the side of the table looked closely at Vortex Dragon's card. Hitoe and Yuzuki were still curious as to why he decided to swap out Aleph who was already Level 3, with Vortex Dragon who was also Level 3. Even Tama was surprised by this play, considering she mostly expected him to Grow Dragonic Overlord at this point. She turned to Yuzuki.

"Why isn't Kai using Overlord?" she asked in curiosity.

"I guess Kai wants to test out Vortex Dragon's abilities," murmured Yuzuki "Considering that it is the first time he's used it in Wixoss."

Over from her card, Eldora stared closely at Vortex Dragon's card, curious as to how something like this even existed as an LRIG. _This is nothing like the LRIGs that Chiyori and I have come across. Even though it appears to be like any other LRIG card that belongs to a non-Selector, I can still feel a strange presence..._

"Are you curious about Kai's cards?" asked Yuzuki, interrupting Eldora's thoughts. Chiyori's LRIG snapped out of her ponder and turned back to Yuzuki.

"Yeah," she answered "Do you know something about them?"

Yuzuki nodded and began to explain everything that she knew about Kai's Kagero cards and the Planet Cray to Eldora. Tama also joined in on the conversation, though most of her comments were more about Dragonic Overlord and how strong it looked in Kai's first Selector Battle. Meanwhile, just beside the entrance to the shop room, a girl in a dark school uniform was observing the battle. She wore a dark black shirt along with a short red skirt. A portion of her brown hair covered over one of her brown eyes. The girl held a card in her right hand and was staring closely at the table where the battle was taking place, mostly intrigued by what Kai had to offer. Back over to said battle, Kai continued on with his turn.

"With Vortex Dragon's ability," he spoke "I flip over the top card of my deck. If it is a Red SIGNI, it goes to my Ener Zone. Anything else and it is sent to the bottom of the deck and I must also trash a card from my Ener Zone."

"So you're taking a gamble?" murmured Chiyori "This 'ought to be fun! Now then, let's see what you get!" Kai nodded and flipped over the top card. It revealed Dragon Monk, Genjo.

"Since it's a Red SIGNI, I move it to my Ener Zone," he said as he moved the card there. "Now then, to my Attac..."

"Not so fast!" called Chiyori "ARTS, But Any Other! With this, I declare a number between 1 and 4 and if my top Life Cloth happens to be a SIGNI of that Level, none of my Life Cloths can be crushed this turn!" Yuzuki at first was about to blurt out that a gamble was going to be ridiculous in this scenario, but Eldora glanced across to her to tell her that there was nothing that Chiyori had to be concerned about. Yuzuki turned back to face Kai who didn't seem fazed by this, though she could tell there was a small hint of disappointment on his expression. He looked across to Chiyori and smiled a little.

"Impressive," he said "By utilizing Eldora's ability last turn to swap your top 2 Life Cloths from looking at them, you know exactly which Level to declare."

"Of course!" replied Chiyori "I declare Level 4!" She revealed the Life Cloth to be Servant Q before placing it back on top of her other Life Cloths.

"In that case, I will just end my turn," spoke Kai "But, your ARTS forces you to trash one of your Life Cloths at this point." Chiyori didn't worry about it as she picked the second Life Cloth she had placed back on the previous turn, revealed to be another copy of Chounan, Water Phantom and placed it in her Trash Pile.

**End of Turn 6**

**Kai vs Chiyori**

**Hand - 5 : 4**

**Life Cloths - 4 : 4**

**Current LRIGs - Vortex Dragon : Eldora=Mark III'**

**SIGNI: Silvan, Natural Stone - Iron Tail Dragon - Dual Axe Archdragon : EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY**

**Ener - 4 : 2**

"My, Chiyori's actually doing better than recently," murmured Eldora "She's still hanging in there, making the best of the resources she has at her disposal."

"Yeah," replied Yuzuki "Had she not seen her top two Life Cloths last turn, Kai could have brought her down to 1 Life Cloth in an instant."

"How so?" asked Hitoe.

"Don't you remember? Chiyori used a Life Burst earlier to put Servant Q in her hand at the ready to fend off Vortex Dragon," she answered "Even if Kai used the ARTS One Rule, Two Birds, Chiyori would still be able to Guard as Servant Q is Level 4." Tama over from her card just pouted from the fact that Kai couldn't get a single attack through that would do anything to swing the game in his favour. Nonetheless, she was intrigued to see what Vortex Dragon was capable of.

"Yes! And now, the great heroine draws and Ener Charges!" called Chiyori "The time has come for her LRIG to emerge at the height of its potential! And with it, the story will shine the torch of victory on the amazing Chiyori! Grow, Eldora=Mark IV'!" On the imagined battlefield, an aura of sparks and electricity coursed through Eldora, making her appear more brighter than before. Her hammer had also been affected by this aura, turning into a gold colour with sparks coursing through it.

"Then I'll Summon 2 Shiira's and a single copy of Octo!" Kai noticed the SIGNI appear in front of his own. Both Shiira, Water Phantoms were Level 4 and despite going through the packs, he didn't obtain a single Level 4 LRIG to use as his own.

"Attack!" called Chiyori. Kai moved all of his defeated SIGNI to his Ener Zone before briefly looking back at his hand. "Then Eldora will bring the hammer down on Vortex Dragon!"

"No guard," he spoke. In the battle he pictured, Eldora took a giant leap into the air and with a swing of her hammer, she knocked quite a punch into Vortex Dragon. Kai flipped over the crushed Life Cloth, revealing it to be Wyvern Guard, Barri.

"Got a Life Burst," spoke Kai "Ener Charge." Chiyori held a wide grin from managing to turn the tide of the battle, for now at least.

"Turn End!" she smiled.

**End of Turn 7**

**Kai vs Chiyori**

**Hand - 5 : 2**

**Life Cloths - 4 : 4**

**Current LRIGs - Vortex Dragon : Eldora=Mark IV'**

**SIGNI: EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY : Shiira, Water Phantom - Octo, Water Phantom - Shiira, Water Phantom**

**Ener - 10 : 0**

_(Insert Music: Cardfight! Vanguard Unreleased Soundtrack: Trinity Crimson Flame)_

"Draw and Ener Charge," Kai spoke "Using Vortex Dragon's ability, I flip the top card of my deck." He revealed the card to be Gatling Claw Dragon, which he placed in his Ener Zone afterwards. That was when Chiyori began to notice something.

"Wait a second," she said "Don't tell me... Your deck doesn't have a single Spell?!"Over from her card, Eldora could only look up at Kai in surprise, wondering why he had chosen to settle with a build such as this.

"That is correct," replied Kai "Whilst I admit this wasn't the best option I had in mind to building this deck, it helps to build up the Ener I need, for this!"

"This?" murmured Chiyori.

"Allow me to show you, Vortex Dragon's true power," he spoke "Megablast!" As all 12 cards in Kai's Ener Zone entered his Trash, Chiyori started to feel nervous all of a sudden.

"Image it," said Kai "This very battlefield and all who stand on it before us shake under the weight of an omonious dragon!" Chiyori suddenly began to picture the way things were being carried out on the battlefield. A whirlwind of crimson fire swirled around Vortex Dragon as it began to charge up power for its ability.

"The flames of purgatory raging within can no longer be contained! Its fiery roar reduces everything in this world to ash! Vortex Dragon, Burning Hell!" Vortex Dragon unleashed a torrent of crimson red fire right at Eldora. The LRIG managed to jump back to dodge the blaze, but the SIGNI were not so lucky. They were caught in the inferno and incinerated in an instant. As the cards moved over to Chiyori's Ener Zone, she could only stare at Vortex Dragon's card in shock.

"How did... How did you manage to take out all of my SIGNI at once?" she asked.

"Vortex Dragon's Megablast," explained Kai "By paying 12 Red SIGNI cards from my Ener, I can choose up to 3 SIGNI and banish them."

"I see!" gasped Yuzuki "Vortex Dragon's ability for Ener Charging made it possible for Kai to pay the cost earlier!"

"But even so, Kai's no longer got any cards in his Ener Zone," said Hitoe "Won't that affect him badly?"

"I wouldn't be so sure," replied Eldora "He just took out 2 of Chiyori's strongest offence and he doesn't seem to be stopping there."

"Go Kai!" called Tama with upbeat enthusiam.

"I summon Calamity Tower Wyvern and pay the Exceed cost of 2," Kai spoke as he moved the two copies of Bahr stacked beneath Vortex Dragon to the LRIG Trash. "I draw a card. Summon!" Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara and Silvan, Alluring Stone were placed alongside Calamity Tower Wyvern.

"Calamity Tower Wyvern will attack Eldora!" Chiyori could only "TSK!" as she couldn't do anything to stop the SIGNI from attacking. The first Life Cloth, Servant Q, had its Life Burst triggered allowing her to Ener Charge Pearl, Water Phantom.

"Using Eldora's ability," she said "I draw 1 card each time one of my Life Bursts is triggered."

"Next!" called Kai as he downed Kimnara's card. The next Life Cloth Una entered Chiyori's Ener Zone, no Life Burst present on the card. Then as Kai downed Silvan's card, Servant O entered her Ener Zone, triggering another Life Burst allowing her to Ener Charge Ryuuguu, Water Phantom before drawing another card.

"Vortex Dragon!" On the imagined battlefield, Vortex Dragon let out a roar at Eldora before flapping its large wings and charging towards her, ready to strike with its raised left claw.

"Guard!" called Chiyori as she pulled and revealed Servant Q out of her hand. Kai nodded before she placed the card in her Trash Pile.

"Turn End."

_(End Insert Music)_

**End of Turn 8**

**Kai vs Chiyori**

**Hand - 4 : 3**

**Life Cloths - 4 : 1**

**Current LRIGs - Vortex Dragon : Eldora=Mark IV'**

**SIGNI: Silvan, Alluring Stone - Calamity Tower Wyvern - Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara : EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY**

**Ener - 0 : 8**

Kai looked at Chiyori who had her head down.

"Is something wrong?" he asked. He was suddenly met with the unexpected response. Chiyori bounced back up with even more energy than she had before and an energetic smile to match that.

"Awesome!" she called "I didn't think your Vortex Dragon was capable of something like that! But now, the real battle begins!" Kai could only smile a little from her enthusiasm and nodded.

"Come then!" he replied.

"Yes! Draw and Ener Charge!" called Chiyori "Summon and ARTS, Cloth Crush Flash!" She moved Servant O and Una, Water Phantom from her Ener Zone to her Trash before gazing back at Kai's Life Cloths.

"Now reveal the top Life Cloth you have," she said. Kai revealed the card to be Dual Axe Archdragon. "Since it has no Life Burst on it," Chiyori continued "You must place it in your Trash." He nodded and placed Archdragon's card in his Trash.

"Then I'll use the same ARTS again!" called Chiyori "Now reveal your next Life Cloth!" Kai revealed the next Life Cloth to be Iron Tail Dragon in which he promptly placed the card in his Trash Pile like before. "One more!" Kai flipped up Berserk Dragon before placing it into his Trash Pile.

"Then I'll use Plus Rush to look at your last Life Cloth and Trash it," Chiyori continued "But there is an upside. That Life Cloth is replaced with the top card of your deck." Kai revealed the Life Cloth to be Dragon Monk, Genjo before placing it in his Trash Pile and putting the top card of his deck in its place.

"I don't know if I can watch," murmured Hitoe.

"Chiyori's not done yet," said Eldora. Yuzuki and Tama looked at her before turning back to the game to see what she meant.

"With Eldora's ability," spoke Chiyori "I pay the cost and banish Silvan!" Kai nodded and moved the card to his Ener Zone.

"Ryuuguu, attack Vortex Dragon!" On the imagined battlefield, Ryuuguu surrounded herself in a veil of water before launching herself towards Vortex Dragon. The jet of water and the Phantom that travelled inside of it hit the dragon head on, knocking it to the ground. Vortex Dragon roared before flapping its wings to hover just above the battlefield. Kai revealed the final Life Cloth to be Dragon Monk, Gojo before placing it in his Ener Zone.

"Kai's got no Life Cloths left!" gasped Tama.

"Which means unless he Guards against the LRIG attack..." murmured Yuzuki. She suddenly paused when she glanced at Eldora. "What's up?" The LRIG could only sigh.

"I wouldn't be certain that Chiyori's won this just yet," she replied "Just take a look at Kai's hand." Yuzuki, Tama and Hitoe looked over at Kai's hand to notice that he still held 4 cards.

"Next, Ouika and Kozama!" called Chiyori. Kai simply moved the SIGNI to his Ener Zone before glancing back at his hand. Chiyori held a smirk after seeing that his SIGNI spaces were now empty.

"Now Eldora, deliver the final blow!" she declared before downing the card. On the imagined battlefield, Eldora gripped onto her hammer tightly and took a giant leap into the air before swinging the barrel down towards Vortex Dragon.

"Behold!" called Chiyori "This is my strongest move! 'Chorizo in the Fantasy!'" Eldora could only facepalm when she heard her Selector say "it" out loud.

"I told you that 'Chorizo' doesn't exactly sound right like that!" she groaned.

"What else did you want me to say?!" replied Chiyori "Hammer Time?" At this point, everyone else except for Kai could only sweatdrop at this whilst Tama just stared in confusion, unsure of what she actually meant. Kai meanwhile could only look at her with a look of partial disbelief and confusion. _I'm not sure which one sounds more ridiculous _he thought to himself _'Chorizo in the Fantasy' or Naoki's 'Break Time'. _"Guard!" he called as he revealed Wyvern Guard, Barri in his hand before placing it in his Trash Pile. Chiyori could only pout in disappointment from this turn of events.

"Turn... end," she groaned.

**End of Turn 9**

**Kai vs Chiyori**

**Hand - 3 : 0**

**Life Cloths - 0 : 1**

**Current LRIGs - Vortex Dragon : Eldora=Mark IV'**

**SIGNI: EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY : Kozame, Water Phantom - Ouika, Water Phantom - Ryuuguu, Water Phantom**

**Ener - 3 : 0**

Kai looked on at Chiyori, noticing her disappointment. "You did well, but this is the end of the line," he spoke. "Final Turn!"

_(Insert Music: Cardfight! Vanguard Soundtrack: Kai no Theme)_

Chiyori could only stare in confusion at him for this sudden declaration, but chose not to reply as she glanced over her current situation. She had no cards in her hand, her SIGNI were her last line of defence and she only had one Life Cloth left. _Not yet! I can still pull through this!_

"Up and Draw," spoke Kai "Then Vortex Dragon's ability." He revealed Embodiment of Spear, Tahr from the top of his deck before placing it in his Ener Zone. Chiyori could only grit her teeth. Thanks to her last attack on Vortex Dragon, she practically handed Kai the means to the end of the battle.

"Using the effect of ARTS, Dominating Fury, I banish Ryuuguu!" As Kai paid 3 of the Ener he had, Chiyori moved Ryuuguu's card to her Ener Zone.

"Then using One Rule, Two Birds," he continued "I give Double Crush to Vortex Dragon and you're not allowed to use any Level 1 SIGNI to Guard." Chiyori could only groan a little. Kai was managing to keep up the pressure to minimize her chances of making his Final Turn fail.

"I summon Dragon Monk, Genjo and attack Eldora with it!" Chiyori reached forward for the last Life Cloth she had available. It was all or nothing now. _Come on, as long as I can still grab something to save Eldora from Vortex Dragon! _She flipped the card over, revealing Octo, Water Phantom. She could only sigh in disappointment. _You win Kai. _Kai having read her expression nodded in agreement.

"Vortex Dragon, final attack!" he declared as he downed the card. On the imagined battlefield, Vortex Dragon charged up a vast amount of energy in its mouth before unleashing a torrent of crimson red fire at the imagined Eldora. The LRIG could do nothing as the blaze consumed her in an instant.

_(End Insert Music)_

Back in the store, the girl who was watching the battle was still staring at Kai, curious about his strength and skill. She still held a card in her hand whilst she was watching the entire match. She held it in front of her, revealing a girl with a large dark dress with long and large white sleeves. This LRIG in particular also appeared to wear a headdress that mixed in both colours from her dress. She had long brown hair and dark green eyes. The LRIG had observed the battle as well as her Selector, sharing equal curiousity about the Kagero cards that Kai had used. As the Selector held up the card in front her, the LRIG looked up at her.

"Well, what do you think Fumio-san?" asked the LRIG. Fumio said nothing in response. She briefly glanced across towards Kai before turning back to her LRIG.

"I've seen enough Anne," she replied.

At this moment, Kai suddenly felt a chill crawl up his spine. He quickly turned around towards the room's entrance, but Fumio was already gone. Tama looked up at him in concern whilst Hitoe, Yuzuki, Eldora and Chiyori just stared at him in confusion, unsure of what to make from this.

"What's wrong Kai?" asked Hitoe.

"It felt like we were being watched," he replied "Someone was observing us."

"You think it could be a Selector?" said Yuzuki.

Kai pondered on this for a moment. If someone else knew about the fact that his LRIGs were actually from Cray or looking to oppose him in his efforts to help Tama, Yuzuki and Hitoe find Ruko, there was no telling what they could be up to. Regardless, he looked back at the group and answered Yuzuki's question.

"Possibly," he said. He then turned back to Chiyori.

"Thank you for our match," he spoke "I hope that fortune favours you well until we next battle, as you wanted." Chiyori bounced up from her seat in excitement, despite being downcast from losing earlier.

"Mhm!" she replied happily "I look forward to the next time we face each other!" She then picked up Eldora's card before the two waved goodbye to the group. Kai, Hitoe, Yuzuki and Tama waved goodbye as Chiyori went running out of the store. With that aside, they turned back to one another.

"Now there is only one thing left for me to do," said Kai.

"Oh that's right!" replied Yuzuki "You mentioned you were going to find a place to stay whilst you were stuck in this world. We'll leave it to you, right Kai?" Kai nodded in response.

"Hold on a second Kai!" called Hitoe as she dug through her bag before pulling out a small white cell phone. "You do have a phone of your own, right?" He nodded before revealing his mobile phone.

"Is it alright if we trade numbers?" she asked "Just in case one of us happens to find Ruko and so we don't lose each other the next time we meet up."

"It is fine," he replied. After the two had exchanged numbers, they placed their respective phones back in their pockets.

"Well then Kai," said Yuzuki "Good luck on finding a place to stay here. We'll keep in touch whenever we can."

"Yeah," he said "I'll see you two later." Kai then waved goodbye to Hitoe and Yuzuki before exiting the store and wandering out into the city streets once more. He held Tama's card close to him in case they happened to come across Ruko during his trek. Sadly after about half an hour later, Tama eventually gave up trying to track her, having used up a lot of her energy in doing so. Kai having noticed this, suggested she took a rest to which the LRIG agreed. He slipped the card back into his pocket before continuing on his trek.

* * *

_**Elsewhere in the city...**_

"No way Eldora! Kai's LRIGs are actually creatures from another planet?!" Chiyori had been told everything about the Kagero clan and Cray, courtesy of Eldora who had learned about this from Yuzuki during the battle earlier.

"Well, that's what she said she knew," the LRIG replied whilst shrugging her shoulders "But, I could still feel a strong presence from Vortex Dragon's card, despite the appearance that it was a plain LRIG card that non-Selectors have." Chiyori's eyes only went wider with awe, curiosity and excitement all at once before she briefly jumped up a few times.

"Amazing! What a twist!" she called "This is way beyond what the novel's plot suggested! I'm really looking forward to seeing those dragons in the flesh!" Eldora could only sweatdrop and sigh. _Provided she doesn't go to her head and lose 2 more Selector Battles before we meet with him again._

* * *

**_Around 3 hours later..._**

It took a long while, but Kai had eventually managed to purchase some essentials along with the place he needed to stay at. As he walked across to the building where his 'temporary' home away from home would lie in one of the apartments present there. As he approached the building's entrance, he stopped to briefly notice his surroundings. Looking up, Kai could see the building that he first met Tama in the distance, its size still looking ominously imposing like a giant pillar in the middle of everything that stood before it. Netherless, he turned his attention back to getting accomendated back to his rented apartment. He entered the building before turning a corner to find a list of numbers on a series of boxes before him. Taking out the card he had recieved when he rented the apartment, he found the number he needed to be at. Before leaving, he quickly noticed one particular number with a single name jotted beside it.

**802 "Kominato"**

_That's Ruko's last name _he pondered _So her family is close to where I am staying. Visiting them out of the blue this moment may not be wise unless Hitoe is with me.__  
_

Deciding to worry about it later, he continued up the stairs to where his apartment room awaited.

* * *

**And there we go! Hope you've enjoyed reading this chapter! Once I get the next one up, I'll leave a link in my profile to the Vortex Dragon build that Kai used in his battle with Chiyori. Don't forget to favourite, follow and/or leave a review. Until then!**


	8. Ride 07: That Mystery Deepens

**And here we are! Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Fumio sat in her chair, deep in thought over recent events that had transpired and what she saw earlier in the day. Her room consisted of a single double bunk bed, several bookcases littered with novels and a desk with her personal computer housed on it. Several books were littered on different parts of the bedroom floor, most of them were already stacked in small piles. Several sticky notes were tabbed on both the end wall of her room and the edges of her computer monitor. One of these notes had a single name jotted down, "Mayu". This would indicate that Fumio had some basic knowledge about the mastermind inside of the White Room, unaware of her current prisoner from Cray. Her LRIG Anne, had her card placed standing up beside the lamp that was also on the desk. She looked up at her Selector, curious as to what she was thinking about as of late.

"Are you thinking about that boy from earlier?" she asked.

"Yeah," Fumio answered "If what I thought I saw earlier before that non-Selector Battle was true..."

"You mean that time when you thought you saw the words on the back of your cards changing for a moment?" murmured Anne. Fumio nodded her head in response to that question.

**_Flashback_**

Like Ulith back from the evening of Kai's arrival, the 'prophecy' on the backs of Fumio's cards had changed for brief moment. Although the message appeared and disappeared just like that in the blink of an eye, that moment could still be recalled from her memory. Fumio glanced to a recent note that she had jotted down with the precise words that she believed to have seen for that single moment. Anne had chosen not to believe her at first believing that Fumio was being played for a fool by a trick of the light, but conceded to follow along her lead to get some meaning from what she was trying to explain to her. Eventually in the following day leading up to this current point in time, Fumio had unexpectedly found 'that' boy engaged in a non-Selector Battle with another girl. She kept in mind to remember the name Chiyori from her LRIG spectating the friendly battle, but made a mental note to remember Kai from his name being said out several times.

Keeping her distance from the shop entrance, she observed the battle from start to finish. Although she was confused as to how his Kagero cards were even able to manifest as LRIGs, Anne could still feel a strong presence, particuarly from the moment where Kai grew Vortex Dragon. After seeing the battle come to a close in Kai's victory, she stated to Anne that she had seen enough and quickly left before he had a chance to spot her. As she left the shop, she held out Anne's card in front of her as she treked back to her apartment.

"You really think he is that boy mentioned in the note you jotted down from what you thought you saw?" the LRIG asked.

"I don't know," Fumio replied "But you felt it too, didn't you?"

"Yeah," answered Anne "It wasn't a Selector Battle, yet those cards he played..." She paused in mid sentence, trying to comprehend the whole situation, particuarly regarding Kai who they had seen earlier. Fumio had shown her to a non-Selector battle where she believed that a boy from something that she thought she saw earlier and jotted down. Yet to Anne herself, the LRIG cards he used felt like they were ones that belonged to an actual Selector, even if they looked a lot 'different'. She looked up back at her Selector.

"Should we look into this further?" she asked. Anne didn't need to wait for an answer to come her way. Fumio nodded in response to her question, confirming her choice before returning to her home.

_**Back to the present**_

Fumio moved her chair over to her desk and picked up the note where she jotted down what she thought she saw on the cards for that brief moment. She still wasn't quite sure if she had jotted down everything correctly, but the words read out:

_A Boy carrying a heavy burden of sin._

_Called upon from his fight "Vanguard"_

_wielding the flames of perdition._

_Seeking a way to end this conflict..._

_Victory will be the only way for his_

_wish to revolutionize._

_Now, shall his "Wish Across" be ignited._

She showed the note to Anne who took her time to read through it. After several minutes of looking at it thoroughly and re-reading it, she turned to Fumio.

"I suppose I can sort of get the jist of it," she said "I mean, his LRIGs mostly resembled dragons which could account for '_the flames of perdition_'. But what I don't get is that 'Vanguard' part from what you wrote down."

"I'm not so sure myself," replied Fumio "But that's one of the words I definitely remember seeing when I saw the text change." She looked over to the curtains blocking her view of the night sky, deep in thought of what was to come. "Even so," she continued "When the time is right, we'll approach him ourselves." Anne nodded in agreement, she herself having shared interest in Kai's appearance to the Selector Battles.

* * *

**Kai's Rented Apartment**

After taking around an hour or so to get used to his new surroundings, Kai had managed to set up everything for his living accomendations to his 'temporary' home. It was quite small having only a joint kitchen and living space along with one bedroom and a single bathroom. Despite this size, he didn't seem bothered by it that much when he purchased the apartment. For the moment though, he was at the single table in the kitchen eating away from a stew that he had cooked up earlier. It was one that he helped to prepare on Quadrifolios's first training camp back when he was still a member of the team. Over from her card, Tama watched him prepare this meal from start to finish and although she imagined it would look tasty, her heart sank when she took into account that she was still trapped inside her card. Ruko even once mentioned to her that any attempt to feed her could result in damaging the card. Nonetheless, she looked back up at Kai in curiosity.

"How does Kai manage to cook something that looks so good?" she asked.

"I've lived on my own for several years," he answered "If it wasn't for you being trapped, I would have offered some." After he took another bite from the stew he cooked up, he looked over to Tama with a question of his own. "Besides, how do you manage to survive without consuming food or drink considering you are stuck in this card?" he asked. The LRIG held her hand under chin, pondering over the answer to this question.

"... Tama usually feels something funny in Tama's stomach once in while," she answered "Other than that, Tama doesn't know."

"I see," murmured Kai. An awkward silence fell in the apartment between the two before he continued to eat at his meal. After he had finished and cleaned up, he went over to his bedroom. It was small, having only a single bed, a cupboard beside the door and a desk in front of the window present. Kai had laid out his deck from his current build around Vortex Dragon on the desk before cooking his meal. Whilst he sat down to reconfigure the deck, he looked through a Wixoss catalogue that he had purchased shortly after his battle with Chiyori to grasp a better understanding of some of the other LRIG types that were available in the game and possibly the Selector Battles for the long run. Tama's card was resting on the lamp that was present on the desk as she watched him reconstruct the deck from scratch, noticing him switch out some of his LRIG lineup for Blazing Core Dragon and Blazing Flare Dragon. She also noticed some different Kagero LRIG cards in a pile beside some spare cards he had outside of the deck, one of which depicted Amber Dragon, Eclipse.

Tama then looked over to Dragonic Overlord's card. Although the card itself had depicted a still image, she could still feel the strong presence coming from it, the same feeling she had when she saw it in battle against Piruluk. That was when she had something on her mind that she wanted to tell Kai.

"Kai?" she murmured.

"What it is Tama?"

"Does Kai think we can find a way to talk to Dragonic Overlord?" she asked. Kai paused for a moment. He thought back to his battle against Akira when Overlord had briefly managed to communicate him via a few words, wondering if such a feat was even possible. From the lores of Dragonic Overlord that he read back in his own world, he knew the dragon was capable of speech, particuarly since the existence of Tatsunagi Takuto and the power of PSY Qualia to a few individuals, Aichi and Ren included, had also confirmed the existence of Cray and the stories told through those lores. Picking up the card and looking at it closely, the words that Dragonic Overlord had spoke to him back then rang through his ears once again.

_Let us win, my Vanguard..._

Pondering back on that occasion, Kai himself despite managing to draw up a theory with Yuzuki of how he was able to summon his units to battle as LRIGs and SIGNI still felt he was being left in the dark on the whole scenario. Thinking over what Tama had just asked him, perhaps finding a way to talk to Overlord would answer some of those questions.

"If we can enter that space where the battles occur," he spoke "Then summoning Overlord there may give us the chance we need to speak with him." Tama nodded in agreement with a large smile on her face. Kai looked back at the time on his phone realizing that it was already late.

"Good night Tama," he said, before switching off the lamp and getting into his bed.

"Tama says goodnight!" replied Tama before yawning and drifting off to sleep.

* * *

**Uemura Household**

Over at Hitoe's home, all was silent and dark with everyone tucked in for sleep. Well, almost everyone. Over in her bedroom, Hitoe was already lying down in her bed, staring out of the window at the night sky. She couldn't sleep for the moment, her mind being preoccupied by something she couldn't stop worrying about. Over from her card, Yuzuki noticed this and looked over towards her Selector.

"Is something troubling you?" she asked. Hitoe nodded in reply confirming Yuzuki's suspicions.

"I'm guessing it's about Ruko," she murmured.

"Yes," Hitoe answered "I'm happy that we managed to find Tama and to know that we have Kai to help us out. But, I'm worried about what's going on with her now that..." She paused in mid sentence, unsure of what to say next. Her heart felt like it was being wrenched just thinking about it.

"I know," replied Yuzuki "With Iona in her possession, I'm not liking this one bit." She then raised her head to look back at Hitoe. "Is there anything else?"

"I'm just wondering where Midoriko could be," said Hitoe. Yuzuki pondered for a moment. Ever since Hitoe had lost 3 Selector Battles before she became her new LRIG, they had no idea of where Midoriko had gone. She hadn't seen her at the White Room when Mayu revealed the flipside of becoming an Eternal Girl and they had no idea of what happened to Hitoe's former LRIG since that fateful day. Deciding to worry about it later, Yuzuki looked back at Hitoe.

"It's getting late now," she said "We'll need all the rest we can get if we want to find Ruko and hopefully get to the bottom of this." Hitoe nodded in agreement before yawning and pulling the covers over her.

"Good night," she said. Yuzuki nodded before drifting off to sleep.

* * *

_**The next morning...**_

As morning rose over the city, Kai eventually woke up from the brightness that entered his apartment room. He looked over to the deck where he left his reconstructed deck last night with Tama's card still leaning on the lamp. Tama herself on the other hand was still sleeping soundly as if nothing had bothered her from the previous night. He looked from the window across towards the center of the city, deep in thought over all that had happened so far. Even so, part of him couldn't help but wonder about how his friends had been doing since his disappearance from back home. Kai knew for a fact that Aichi would not take this news well once he found out that he was missing from the face of 'his' Earth and would probably do something drastic to find out where he was. Despite that though, he knew he had something to do and he wasn't going to stop until he had the answers he needed. His trail of thoughts was interrupted when he heard Tama yawn loudly.

"Good morning," she said, her speech almost broken up by her yawn. Kai looked over to her and nodded in agreement. A few minutes later, after having breakfast and changing into some clothes that he bought before his arrival to his rented apartment, he set out into the streets once more with his phone, deck and Tama's card on hand. His new wardrobe consisted of a dark red shirt along with some dark trousers and a plain colored short sleeve jumper with a dark brownish shade from the collar down to the sleeves. Continuing on through the streets, he looked across the many crowds of people for Ruko. Since he got a more accurate description from Yuzuki and Hitoe on the previous day, being able to tell her apart from the rest was easy enough. The problem was finding the girl that matched the exact description and Tama wasn't faring any better with trying to track Iona. Before they could consider taking a short break, a familiar voice had called out from nearby.

"Hello again!" Kai turned around to see Chiyori dashing through some crowds of people until she stopped right in front of him. Tama called out loud and waved hello as the Selector came rushing towards him.

"Chiyori," Kai greeted nonchalantly. The young Selector nodded in excitement.

"And so, fate draws us to meet again!" she called out loud "And pretty soon already I might add." A sigh came over from where she was standing. From the tone present, Kai and Tama could tell that it was Eldora.

"If your definition of pretty soon was somewhere close to around 20 hours," she spoke "I'm surprised if you even managed to practice enough to challenge him to a Selector Battle in that timeskip." A tic mark appeared of Chiyori in annoyance, but she knew Eldora had made a fair point.

"Besides," the Selector said, briefly pausing to ponder over something "Could you take a look at this?"

"What is it?" asked Kai. Chiyori dug into one of her pockets and revealed to him a single card, Blue Storm Guardian Dragon, Icefall Dragon.

"I haven't seen this registered in any Wixoss card guides," she explained "So it was pretty surprising to find this one when I went through a few packs. I was wondering, seeing as your cards are from this Planet Cray, you would know something about this?" Kai looked closely at the card. He wasn't surprised for some reason as if he had seen it before, yet it looked different.

"I do," he replied "You've somehow managed to obtain a unit from the Aqua Force clan. A Quintet Wall to exact."

"Quintet Wall?" murmured Tama.

"A means of defense gained through a gamble," Kai explained "From what I know in the game of Vanguard, a Quintet Wall can be used to call 5 units from the top of a fighter's deck to defend their attacked unit. From what I could read, it works differently but in the exact same sense. It also appears that you can also use it to defend against SIGNI attacks as well as LRIG attacks."

Chiyori stared in wonder at the card as Kai handed it back to her. Eldora was now also curious on the matter. Neither she or Chiyori had heard anything about a Quintet Wall before in the game of Wixoss. Kai meanwhile had his thoughts set on something else. _If additional Kagero cards from the day before were only present from my arrival into this world, then could 'he' be here as well?_

"What's up Kai?" asked Chiyori who looked up at him in confusion.

"I've just been thinking over a few things," he replied "The card reminds me of someone I know well from my own world."

"Someone?" pondered Tama.

"Soryu Leon," Kai answered "He's one of 3 fighters I know of that wield that clan. The other two are twins that have accompanied him, Jillian and Charlene Chen."

"I see," murmured Eldora "Yuzuki told me you weren't exactly from around here so I guess it would somewhat make sense you knew something we didn't."

"So cool!" called Chiyori "This is now totally way beyond the novel! Creatures from another world have now descended onto the battlefield of destiny and I'm holding one of them!" She bounced up and down a few times being unable to contain her excitement. Kai and Eldora could only sigh at this, but could understand at where she was going with her speech. That was when Kai realized something he had to ask.

"Say Chiyori," he spoke.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Have you seen a Selector by the name of Kominato Ruko?" he asked "Hitoe and Tama told me she can also be known as Ru for short." Chiyori held her hand under her chin for a moment, trying to figure out some sense of what Kai had asked her. Then something clicked in Eldora's head.

"Now that I think about it," she said "I definitely remember seeing someone run out of that building where Iona's fan event was being held. She stopped in front of us briefly, then a voice said "Hey Ru, our first opponent." After that, she panicked and ran off." Chiyori gasped in realization, now remembering exactly what had happened back then.

"That's right!" she said "Now that I think about it, I could of sworn that voice that said "Ru" was Iona's."

"Do you know where she was headed?" asked Kai.

"Please tell Tama!" Tama cried.

"I'm sorry," Chiyori answered in defeat "I tried to give chase, but I tripped up after I ran a few blocks."

"More like a few feet," murmured Eldora. Chiyori glared at Eldora in annoyance for that smug remark but deep down, she knew that her LRIG was right. Netherless, she looked back at Kai and Tama.

"Sorry if that wasn't much help," she said.

"Don't worry about it," Kai replied "Thanks for telling us everything you know." Chiyori nodded in agreement.

"Well then, I wish you luck Kai!" she called "I think it's time Eldora and I took out this Quintet Wall for a test drive. See you around!" Kai nodded and the two waved farewell to one another. As Chiyori ran off, he looked back at Tama. The LRIG felt a little downcast from the news, but still felt upbeat with the knowledge that they knew someone who had seen her at least once.

"Tama won't give up!" she called "Not until Tama finds Ruko!" Kai could only smile a little from seeing that Tama's resolve hadn't wavered and wasn't letting the disappointment of the news they heard from Chiyori and Eldora get the better of her. He reached into his pocket for his phone and selected Hitoe's number. After a few vibrations from the phone, Kai got an answer through.

"Hello Kai!" called Hitoe "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah," he replied "I ran into Chiyori earlier. I've found out that she bumped into Ruko shortly after she ran away from the building where Iona's fan event was held, but she couldn't keep up to see where she was going."

"I see," murmured a second voice through the phone. Kai could easily recognize that voice to be Yuzuki's. "Thanks for letting us know."

"Don't worry about it," he said "At least we have someone we know as a possible lead."

"Say Kai," replied Hitoe "If it isn't too much trouble, could you meet me by the library later?"

"Yeah," answered Kai "I'll be sure to arrive there as soon as I can."

"Thank you," she said "Goodbye!" The call ended right there. Kai placed his phone back in his pocket. Tama looked up at him in curiousity, wondering about what he intended to do next.

"So what now?" she asked.

"We head to the library," he answered "And see what Hitoe wanted me there for." Tama nodded with a big smile. Kai slipped her card back into his jacket pocket and headed on his way to find directions to the city library.

* * *

**Kai's World; Soryu Island**

Deep inside an open cavern on the remote island of the Seven Seas, a boy was standing in front of a large pool of water in the center of the ruined cave. Several ruined stone pillars were present near the entrance of the cavern, a remainder of what was formerly left over of the Soryu Tribe in the days of old, before the Void sealed away the Aqua Force clan on the Planet Cray. The boy had yellow hair jutting out in various directions, some in larger spikes whilst three smaller spikes jutted upward from the top of his head. The boy also wore a white garb with blue colored sleeves and neck collar. A purple jewel was presemt partway down the top half of his garb between 3 gold-yellow lines running across and a single red line that went from the bottom of his collar down the whole garb to the end of the piece of fabric that made up the lower half. The boy was deep in thought, pondering over recent events that had transpired that he wasn't fully aware of, as of yet.

_This is strange indeed. First Kai Toshiki has vanished from the face of this world without a trace, now I'm picking up a faint signal of PSY Qualia off Tatsunagi Takuto from someplace other than here or Cray._

He opened his purple eyes and turned around to no one in particular, the conclusion he had come to now set in stone for him.

"There is a disturbance in the wind."

* * *

**There we go! So it appears that Kai's appearance in the Wixoss world has also resulted in him dragging along the Quintet Wall mechanic into the game. Also it appears that Leon has now become aware of Kai's disappearance and is ****looking into the situation himself. Anyway, I've posted up a link to Kai's Vortex Dragon build he used in the previous two chapters in my profile and I hope that you've all enjoyed this chapter. Whilst I'm writing up the next chapter, I'm going to allow you to ask any questions you may have about the story so far and I'll post any answers to them in an update next week. Keep in mind that I won't be able to answer every single question that may pop up (partially because of spoilers and things that I still haven't confirmed to have fully planned yet). Anyway, don't forget to favourite, follow and/or leave a review! Before I go, here's the full stats of Icefall Dragon in its Wixoss form below. Until then!**

**Name: Blue Storm Guardian Dragon, Icefall Dragon**

**Color: Blue**

**Card Type: SIGNI**

******Class: Tear Dragon**

**Level: 1**

**Power: 2000**

**Effect:**

**[Quintet Wall] Pay 1 card that is the same Color as your LRIG, then reveal and discard this card: When your opponent's LRIG or SIGNI declares an attack, you may pay the cost. If you do, reveal the top 5 cards of your deck. Then if the number of SIGNI revealed are equal to or more than the attacking SIGNI or LRIG's Level, disable that attack. Then, regardless of the result, send all Spells revealed to your Trash and place all SIGNI revealed by this effect in your Ener Zone.**


	9. Update: QA Page

**Hello everyone! Over the previous week for those who have read the previous chapter by then, I allowed you to ask some questions regarding the story so far. I've taken my time to look through them and I can say that I was able to answer all your questions without giving away too much in that regard. Sadly over the course of the week I've provided, I only got one question in, but I'm more than happy to answer any future questions that may pop up by posting as many answers as I can give on all future chapters starting from the next one I post onwards.**

**Q1: kineke13 - Are you going to add Limit Break, Break Ride or Legion into the story or is it too early to tell since you showed the Quintet Wall?**

**A: **This isn't really spoiling anything, but yes. I do plan to include those 3 aftermentioned mechanics later on in the story. The one that will probably be the most difficult for me to do is probably Legion since I do plan to have some of the LRIGs belonging to the Wixoss cast gain that ability at some point, but how exactly that will happen is something I'm still drawing down concepts for. Limit Break and Break Rides won't be much of a problem as I can work with those easily.

**And there we have it. I'll see you readers once again on the next chapter of Stand Up, the LRIG!**


	10. Ride 08: That Disappearance is Strange

**Before we start, I would to give a huge thanks to everyone who has been keeping up with this story so far. I really appreciate your feedback and I'm happy to see that you're enjoying this. Anyway, without further adieu, here's the next chapter.**

* * *

Eventually, after recieving some directions from an information center that he came across, Kai had managed to find his way around the city a little easier than before and got a clear path to the library. Using a map that he was provided with, he eventually came across said building. It was smaller than a large majority of the buildings that he passed by on the way here, Ruko's school included, its architecture ressembling that of a small, but smart house. Two large trees along with several smaller trees surrounded the building and the entrance had a light on the overhanging roof just above the doors. Checking back on the map he had, Kai acknowledged that this was the place that Hitoe had asked him to meet her by. Speaking of whom, the Selector herself was coming towards him from the opposite direction with Yuzuki's card in hand.

"Hello Kai!" she called. Kai waved back and pulled out Tama's card from his pocket. The LRIG called out and waved over to both Hitoe and Yuzuki with a large smile on her face. The Selector and the Cardfighter then looked over to the library doors.

"So what is it you wanted me over here for?" asked Kai.

"Yuzuki said she would explain everything after I take you through to the library garden on the other side," Hitoe answered. She went over towards the doors with Kai following her a few steps behind.

* * *

**Unknown Location...**

Leon could only stare at the strange space that his presence was summoned to. It was dark with barely any light present and there seemed to be nothing around him. He couldn't help but wonder over his current scenario. Just who or what had brought him here and what did they want with him? As if his thoughts had already been read, his answer had already come.

"Soryu Leon..." The Aqua Force user turned around to find the source of the voice. To his surprise, standing before him was a familiar person, taking on the appearance of an astral spirit like version of himself.

"Tatsunagi Takuto," he spoke.

"I don't have a long time to speak to you," Takuto replied "So please listen carefully." The Child of Soryu nodded in response in the account that he was prepared to listen to what Takuto had to say.

"I have gotten myself into a most unfortunate predicament," he began "On my way back from the Planet Cray, I stumbled into a strange White Room. I freed someone who was being held prisoner there, but I got captured in the result. I learned that Mayu, the person in control there is manipulating a higher power in the world outside of that room."

"I see," murmured Leon "Then how are you contacting me this moment?"

"I'm using your PSY Qualia as a means of talking to you," Takuto replied "But I can't keep in contact for long in case Mayu finds out that she hasn't taken all of my power. Before she completely drained me, I began a summoning with the intention of bringing a strong Cardfighter to my aid, Aichi being in mind at the time. But because my power was being drained quickly, I ended up abruptly summoning Kai Toshiki to the world outside of where I'm being held." Something then clicked in Leon's head. This was how Kai had vanished from his world.

"Is he alright?" he asked "I have heard news from abroad that Sendou has been worried sick about him."

"I haven't seen how he has fared so far," Takuto answered "But from what conversations I've been hearing, he's been dragged into the conflict that my hostess has been manipulating. Whilst I was being drained, I could sense that Mayu's power is somehow blurred between the lines of imagination and reality. I could also feel a familiar dark presence which leads to believe she may some sort of connection with the Void." Leon gritted his teeth. He knew full well of what happened when the Void sealed away the Aqua Force on Cray and he wasn't happy with allowing himself to be manipulated by said being to allow his clan to return to power. He was thankful that Aichi had managed to make him see what he was doing was wrong back then and all the enemies he had made during this time eventually more or less became close friends.

"What do you need me to do though?" Leon asked. Before Takuto could answer, he quickly turned around, then back to Leon with a concerned expression on his face.

"I need you to find a way to where Kai is and let him know of my predicament," he replied "From what I've been seeing from here and the explanations I have been getting, I'd advise if Aichi were not to come."

"Why exactly?"

"Because if he were to be dragged into the battles there and learn the truth about them, then..." Takuto's answer was suddenly cut off as a brilliant flash of light engulfed the entire space, blinding Leon's vision. Before everything went all white, he could see Takuto vanishing from right in front of him.

* * *

**Kai's World: Soryu Island**

"Leon-sama!"

"Are you alright?!"

Leon slowly but steadily got his grasp of reality back together. He was seated in a chair in the library section of the island. Beside him were the twins, Jillian and Charlene who looked concerned for their friend. He cluctched his head as he tried to recall everything that Takuto had told him. The being from Cray was being held captive by someone called Mayu, from another world entirely and Kai Toshiki had been been brought into the battles that transpired there. Leon could also remember Takuto advising him about something to do with not letting Aichi join him on this situation, but his reason was cut short from the sudden interruption. He looked back at Jillain.

"Did something happen?" he asked.

"You kind of spaced out for a moment," she answered "What's going on?" Leon stood up slowly with help from Charlene, having not fully regained conscoiusness from his use of PSY Qualia to talk with Takuto.

"The wind has summoned me for an important task," he spoke "But I may require outside assistance to accomplish this." Leon than turned over to Charlene.

"Can you patch through a call to Foo Fighter?" he asked. "I may need to speak to 'him' about this."

* * *

**Wixoss World: Library Garden**

Kai and Hitoe sat at a table in the small, but lush garden at the back of the library. It was peaceful and quiet with no one else present at the time, thereby giving them enough space to discuss matters on their own. To the side of the table, Tama and Yuzuki's cards were resting up against Hitoe's bag so the two LRIGs would be able to get a better view of the discussion from their perspectives. Yuzuki cleared her throat so she could get the conversation going.

"First things first," she spoke "Did you happen to find anything about Ruko?"

"No," Kai answered "But I've found out that where I'm staying is only a floor above from where her family are living. I haven't taken the opportunity to see them yet."

"I see," said Hitoe "Maybe when we can get some better information about where our friend is, I could introduce them to you later."

"Tama's heard Ru's grandma is really nice," Tama replied "Though Tama can't talk to her."

"Anyway," Yuzuki continued "I've also been wondering if maybe you could shed some light about this Aichi and Ren you've mentioned to us before. You said the first had helped you recover from your dillema with this Link Joker and I was wondering if maybe you could tell us a bit about those two."

"Very well then," Kai said. He then closed his eyes deep in thought as he went back over those memories.

"Back in my world," he began "I was already acqainted with the game of Vanguard at a young age."

**_Kai's Memories/POV_**

"Royal Paladin was the very first clan that I had used. During those days, I wasn't always the strong fighter I currently am. My friend, Tashi Miwa was the one that brought me into the game, but for some reason, I can't recall the name of my first opponent."*****

A younger Kai was seen cardfighting a boy around his age with Miwa watching from the sidelines. For some strange reason in this flashback, his opponent is obscured by a dark shadow making it very hard for him to remember who it was he faced then.

"Eventually, after several months came that fateful day. The day I met Sendou Aichi."

The scene jumps a few months into the future where Kai first meets a young boy with blue hair after noticing the scuff marks and plasters on his face.

"In those days, he was always picked on for his shyness and frail appearance. As a result, he didn't have any friends back then. I gave him the card that would eventually become his avatar and change his life for the better. Blaster Blade."

"Hold on," Yuzuki interrupted "You mean to say he's now as strong as you from giving him that card?"

"I wouldn't say it was just that," Kai replied "But I'll get to that later. After that, everything for me eventually changed for the worse."

"What happened?" asked Hitoe.

"I lost my parents and was forced to move," he answered "Being too young to fend for myself back then, my uncle took me in and I transferred to a new school. During this time, I picked up the Kagero clan as my new deck and discovered Dragonic Overlord."

Kai is then seen entering the classroom of his new school and taking a seat by the window in front of a boy with red hair. The scene cuts to Kai on the roof where he is met by the same red haired boy along with a taller boy with purple hair.

"That was when I met Suzugamori Ren and Shinjou Tetsu."

"What is Ren like?" Tama asked.

"Ren was always a bit of an airhead," Kai replied "But he had a good judge of character."

The flashback then cuts to Kai's first game against Tetsu when he defeats him with Dragonic Overlord.

"Eventually after we got acqainted and I had my first game with Tetsu, Ren offered me a chance to be among his team, Foo Fighter. We thought that the good times could never end and I thought I was finally at home with myself. But sadly, that was when fate had decided to play a cruel trick once again. One day, I returned to the place where we held our cardfights to see that Ren had beaten Tetsu into submission."

The younger Kai could see that Ren before him has a more sinister glint in his eyes.

"I didn't know about what exactly was going on at the time, but Ren had picked up a strange power known as PSY Qualia which allowed him to communicate with the Shadow Paladin units he commanded. But he couldn't control it and ended up being consumed. As a result, he became power hungry looking to defeat the strongest and become the best. I tried to stop him, but I wasn't strong enough."

The scene cuts to Ren using his PSY Qualia to manifest himself as Blaster Dark on the surface of Cray in front of Kai.

"But before he could strike the final blow, he passed out from overusing that power. I knew that in our current states, there was nothing more I could do. I left behind everything once again and moved back to my original home, hoping I could become even stronger on my own so I could try again to save Ren. Because of what happened then, I wasn't exactly a friendlier person when I returned back to everyone I knew well."

"What exactly do you mean?" asked Yuzuki.

"I came across to others as more of a lone wolf with more a selective mute appearance," Kai answered "Miwa would be the only one who I could tolerate. One day, I was challenged by the self-proclaimed strongest fighter, Katsumi Morikawa. I originally turned him down, but I accepted when he willingly betted Blaster Blade as a prize for the winner. After I defeated him, I eventually found out that this was the same Blaster Blade I had given to Aichi."

Aichi stumbles into Card Capital to retrieve Blaster Blade. Kai prevents him from doing by explaining why he can't give it back.

"Even though the card was stolen, Morikawa had to respect the terms for a Vanguard Fight. This therefore meant if Aichi wanted Blaster Blade, he would have to fight me to get it back. Plucking up enough courage, he challenged me under those conditions. As he was new to the game, I gave Blaster Blade back to him on the condition he would hand it back should I win. I taught him the rules as we went along and eventually, through sheer luck and a miracle, he emerged victorious."

The current trail of memories ends with Aichi using Blaster Blade to deal the final blow to Dragonic Overlord.

**_Present_**

"Wow," murmured Hitoe "It sounds like he's very brave to go through with a challenge like that."

"Yeah," replied Yuzuki whilst looking over to her "Almost reminds me of a certain Selector who's been holding on to my card." Hitoe almost jumped in surprise to that statement.

_There's no way I can be someone like this Aichi _she thought _I mean, I guess I can understand why from what Kai's explained so far, we could sort of relate. But whether it's in the game of Wixoss or Vanguard in his matter, there's no way I could be like him. _Shaking herself clear of that thought, Hitoe turned her attention back to Kai. "You can continue now if you want," she said.

Kai nodded as he went back to the story he had shared so far. He continued to explain about how Aichi at first still had a long way to go to become the strong cardfighter he was known for today as well as giving brief mentions of Katsuragi Kamui and Misaki Tokura, his teammates whilst he was still a part of Q4. He recounted the events that occured in the first and second national tournaments whilst also dropping mention of Aichi's PSY Qualia incident and his failed attempt to bring Ren back to his senses. Kai then explained how Aichi had managed to bring Ren back in the final round of the second national tournament and things began looking up from there. He also told the group of his adventures in the Asia Circuit with how his Kagero deck was replaced with Narukami and that he returned to Ren to play with his team once again like he did before the PSY Qualia incident whilst also dropping mention of Tatsunagi Takuto and Soryu Leon along with Aichi's progression in the Circuit as he eventually finished his tale.

"And then of course there is the Link Joker incident," he concluded "I think you already know the rest from what I told you earlier."

"Yeah," said Yuzuki who was still in awe over the whole explanation "That is quite the story. I didn't think Cray was any more real until you mentioned that Takuto guy."

"Tama finds Kai's story amazing!" called Tama. Hitoe couldn't find any words to describe everything she heard. From what she could gather, Kai along with Aichi and Ren had been through a lot in their lives back in their home world, all three sharing their good and bad moments in different ways.

"I kind of wish we could meet them though," she murmured "Aichi sounds like he's a really nice person." Kai could understand at where she was coming from. Deep down however, he thought that bringing Aichi into this world's current state was not such a good idea. If he ended up becoming a pseudo-Selector like him, only because of his PSY Qualia, he could become an easy target before he could understand of what he would be getting himself into. Nonetheless, he still had a task to accomplish so there would be time for him to explain everything to Aichi when they would eventually and hopefully reunite. Kai turned over to Yuzuki.

"I believe that this isn't the only thing you wanted to ask of me," he spoke. The LRIG nodded and turned over to Hitoe.

"You did remember to bring your deck like I asked, right?" The Selector nodded and reached inside her bag, pulling out a small case containing her cards.

"You want me to engage Hitoe in a practice battle?" asked Kai.

"That's right," replied Yuzuki "If the worse case scenario happens to come when we eventually find Ruko, we need to be ready for anything." She then looked up at Hitoe. "Do your best, I'll be watching."

"Yeah," she replied "Um... Kai, I know I'm feeling nervous going up against you, but please don't hold anything back."

"But of course," he replied as he lay an LRIG card face down onto the mat that the two of them had placed on the table. Hitoe got herself set up for their battle to begin. Both Cardfighter and Selector reached for their starting LRIGs on their respective ends on the playmat.

"Open!"

"Open, the LRIG!"

_(Insert Music: Cardfight! Vanguard Unreleased Soundtrack: Stand Up, Vanguard!)*_

Both Selector and Cardfighter flipped their LRIG cards up, revealing both Lizard Soldier, Conroe and Yuzuki-Zero respectively.

"Um... Kai, you can go first," said Hitoe.

"Very well then," he spoke "Draw. I grow Embodiment of Armor, Bahr!" He motioned to Hitoe that he was passing the turn over to her.

"Right," she said "Draw. I grow Yuzuki-One!" She then placed Echidna, Phantom Dragon from her hand into the center SIGNI space that was directly in front of the LRIG card before downing it. "Attack!" Kai revealed the crushed Life Cloth to be Roaring Fire Pillar before placing it in her Ener Zone. "Next!"

"No guard." Kai then revealed Seal Dragon, Artpique, drawing 1 card from its Life Burst before placing it in his Ener Zone.

"Turn end."

**End of Turn 2**

**Kai vs Hitoe**

**Hand - 7 : 6**

**Life Cloths - 5 : 7**

**Current LRIGs - Embodiment of Armor, Bahr : Yuzuki-One**

**SIGNI: EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY : EMPTY - Echidna, Phantom Dragon - EMPTY**

**Ener - 2 : 0**

"The first attacks have already been dealt," murmured Yuzuki "Hitoe's doing okay so far."

"But why didn't Kai summon any SIGNI or even Ener Charge on Kai's turn?" asked Tama.

"He must be conserving his cards for the defensive later," she answered "Even so, I wonder how this will turn out."

"Draw," spoke Kai "Ener Charge. I grow Blazing Core Dragon and summon!" He placed Iron Tail Dragon and Gatling Claw Dragon on the left and right SIGNI spaces of his side of the mat. "Using Conroe's Self-Exceed ability, I pay 1 and move him to my LRIG Trash to add a Level 1 Red SIGNI from my deck to my hand." Kai then revealed Wyvern Guard, Barri as the card he was searching for before he shuffled his deck. "And then, I use Blazing Core's ability." He moved Seal Dragon, Artpique from his Ener Zone to his Trash before moving Iron Tail and Gatling Claw's cards there in its place. Kai took out a single card from his LRIG deck and held it out before him.

"Three sealed gods of destruction, gain the power of explosive flames and rise! Blazing Flare Dragon, Superior Grow!" As Kai placed the card on top of Blazing Core Dragon, Yuzuki and Hitoe could only look on in surprise having not realized that he did not have another Kagero LRIG with the same manuever he used against Chiyori the other day. Tama meanwhile looked on at the card seeing the dragon depicted. It was red in a lighter shade than Dragonic Overlord having four red wings, two large and another two half the size. Its right arm had a double barrel gatling gun kind of weapon whilst the dragon had two left arms, one wielding a sword and another with a blade on the wrist.

"Again?!" gasped Yuzuki "You mean to say Aleph isn't the only one with that kind of ability?!"

"Amazing!" called Tama whilst throwing her fist into the air in excitement. Kai briefly glanced down at Yuzuki before turning his attention back to Hitoe.

"Image it," he spoke "You and Yuzuki are standing in the presence of the Lord of Explosive Flames, where a fierce battle awaits the both of you."

"Wow..." murmured Hitoe, who was breathless at this spectacle. _Yuzuki should be glad that she's not facing this in the flesh. I'm not sure if I even stand a chance against Kai now. _Yuzuki noticed Hitoe's expression and glanced up at her.

"Hitoe, don't panic!" she called "You're still in the third turn and you have your own way to catch up to Kai's current state!" The Selector nodded and looked back at him.

"Summon! Garp attacks!" Hitoe placed the defeated Echidna, Phantom Dragon in her Ener Zone.

"Next, Kimnara and Iron Tail Dragon!" Kai called.

The first two Life Cloths that were crushed were Silvan, Natural Stone and Expelling Flames of the Dragon Phoenix. Hitoe noticed the Life Burst on the second card.

"Using the Life Burst," she spoke "I move Gatling Claw Dragon from your Ener Zone to your Trash and banish Kimnara." Kai nodded complying with the card's effects.

"Finally, Blazing Flare Dragon attacks!"

"Guard!" Hitoe revealed Servant O from her hand before placing it in her trash.

"Turn end," Kai spoke.

_(End Insert Music)_

**End of Turn 3**

**Kai vs Hitoe**

**Hand - 4 : 5**

**Life Cloths - 5 : 5**

**Current LRIGs - Blazing Flare Dragon : Yuzuki-One**

**SIGNI: EMPTY - ****Cross Shot, Garp** - Iron Tail Dragon : EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY

**Ener - 2 : 3**

Hitoe looked over her hand and then back across to Kai's side of the field.

_If I remember from seeing it right when Kai opened through the pack that had this card, Blazing Flare can pay 5 Ener to send any one of my SIGNI to my Trash. In addition, each time one of Kai's card effects banishes or trashes one of my SIGNI, he can allow Blazing Flare Dragon to give 3000 power to one of his SIGNI until the end of that turn. I need to be careful with what I play._

"Is everything alright?" Kai asked.

"Um... I'm fine," replied Hitoe "Draw and Ener Charge." _Ruko, wherever you are, I promise we'll find a way to help set things straight for you! _"Grow, Yuzuki-Two!"

On the field that Kai was picturing, nothing much changed of Yuzuki's appearance even with the hovering cannons on either side from her Level 1 form, with the only difference being the addition of small crystal like red wings on her back and several red markings on her face. Back to reality, Hitoe continued on with her turn.

"Then by paying 1, I use the Spell End of Eternity!"

"Now this is where things get interesting," murmured Yuzuki.

"How so?" Tama asked.

"Watch and see," she replied.

"Superior Grow, Yuzuki-Three!" Hitoe placed the card on top of Yuzuki-Two. The third form of Yuzuki didn't really depict anything different from the second form aside from a different pose and a higher level of power. Kai looked on, having now realized of what was coming his way.

"Impressive," he spoke "If I'm not mistaken, Yuzuki also has a Level 4 form. By paying the cost for the Spell you used, you've not only caught up to Blazing Flare Dragon, but you've cut down the Grow Cost for next turn."

"Yeah," replied Hitoe "Yuzuki helped me to assemble this deck around her, so I know what she needs me to do in different scenarios."

"Still, I didn't think you were that perspective Kai," said LRIG murmured "Though I suppose your experience through Cardfighting in your own world has helped you to see that." Kai nodded and motioned for Hitoe to continue.

"Right," she replied "I summon Bronda, Tyranno and Silvan! Attack!"

Kai first moved his Cross Shot, Garp and Iron Tail Dragon to his Ener Zone before flipping up his next crushed Life Cloth. The card revealed was Silvan, Natural Stone. No Life Burst was present on it though.

"Now Yuzuki will attack," Hitoe spoke.

"No guard." Kai flipped his next Life Cloth revealing Dragon Monk Genjo.

"Got a Heal Life Burst," he said "Recovering one Life Cloth with the top card of my deck."

"Over to you Kai," replied Hitoe.

**End of Turn 4**

**Kai vs Hitoe**

**Hand - 4 : 2**

**Life Cloths - 4 : 5**

**Current LRIGs - Blazing Flare Dragon : Yuzuki-Three**

**SIGNI: EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY: Silvan, Natural Stone - Bronda, Natural Stone - Tyranno, Phantom Dragon**

**Ener - 5 : 1**

"You're doing well Hitoe!" called Yuzuki "Keep up the pressure!"

"Go Kai!" cheered Tama. Yuzuki turned to her and could only sweatdrop a bit. _Figures._

* * *

**Kai's World: Foo Fighter Headquarters**

Ren sat back in his office chair, looking out of the window overlooking the large city that stood before the building. Despite no longer attending Fukuhara High School from graduating a few months ago, he felt like keeping the school uniform for casual wear after Kai had shown disapproval from his use of his old black trenchcoat. He was looking up at the sky with a certain preoccupation on his mind.

_Kai, I know it is your thing to travel across the world looking for strong opponents, but I didn't think you were the type that would go off everybody's radar so suddenly._

"Is something bothering you, Ren-sama?" Ren turned around to face the person that asked him. She wore a smart dark blue jacket and short skirt. The girl's eyes and hair color also followed suit with the color of her clothes, only her eyes were a much lighter shade of light blue.

"It's nothing important, Asaka," he answered in his casual tone "Just thinking so hard over something makes my head hurt so bad."

"I see," she replied "I have someone outside who wants to see you."

"Oh? Let's see who has come over then."

Asaka nodded and went over to the doors which opened, revealing Soryu Leon in their presence. The Aqua Force user stepped inside and walked over to the desk where Ren faced him.

"Hello there!" he called "What can I do for you today?"

"Suzugamori Ren," Leon replied in a more serious tone "There is a matter I wish to discuss with you."

"Oh?" pondered Ren "What would that be?" Leon turned back to Asaka.

"If you could give us a few moments," he spoke.

"Of course." Asaka nodded and left the office through the doors. Leon then turned back to Ren with the matter at hand.

"You've noticed it too?" he asked.

"But of course," replied Ren "Kai's disappearing acts have gotten old since the whole deal with the Link Joker invasion. I wonder why this one feels so different?"

"That could be the fact that he is no longer on this world," Leon answered. Ren's interest was now perked up at this point. Until now, he had no idea of why Kai's disappearance had been bugging him so much. He then got up from his desk and walked over to Leon.

"So then, what do you have in mind?"

* * *

**And here we go! Hope you've all enjoyed this chapter. Sorry if most of it was basically a flashback/recap chapter, but I thought it would be helpful if Hitoe and Yuzuki were more familar with Aichi and Ren earlier for later on. Anyway, don't forget to favourite, follow and/or leave a review and I'll see you later on the next chapter.**

*** Yep. If you've read the manga and seen the trailer for the movie, that is indeed Kouji Ibuki. If you saw the subbed 3 minute promo, around the first minute mark, you can hear Kai asking himself just who is Ibuki which leads me to believe he has somehow forgotten about him at this point in time.**

*** This soundtrack first plays in Episode 105 when Aichi is going over the basics of Vanguard with Naoki.**


	11. Ride 09: This Resolve is Bravery

**Hello again everyone! I'm happy to see that you're enjoying how the story has been going. Now before we go onto the chapter itself, I'll go ahead and answer some questions that I've recently seen in my reviews.**

**Q1: kineke13 - Could Hitoe could use some of Kai's cards since they both use the same colors?**

**A: All I can say without giving too much away is keep on reading this chapter and you may get a pleasant surprise.**

**Q2: catboy97 - Are you going to add the LRIG Umuru in this story?**

**A: Interesting question there. I am definitely thinking of adding Umuru, but the only issue I'm having at the moment is since the anime staff confirmed she won't show up in actual canon, I have only the quotes on her card flavors to follow on to try and write out her character. All I can say is keep on reading and I'll see what I can do to try and write Umuru into the story.**

**Well, with those questions answered, I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

**Kai's World: City Park**

Aichi walked about the park with concern written all over his expression. Ever since Kai had vanished without a trace, unbeknowst to him was actually the unintentionally doing of Tatsunagi Takuto, he couldn't help but feel worried about what had happened to him. After finding out from Miwa that not even he had known why their friend had disappeared, his worst fears had felt like they were already coming to light. Was this a repeat of what happened when he chose to seal himself away only with reversed roles or was a different element in play this time? Aichi didn't know the answer yet, but he had a feeling that when would eventually find that answer, that's when he would eventually find Kai.

_Kai-kun, just what is going on? _he thought to himself _Why have you vanished from here?_

Swallowing a deep breath, he took out his deck from his pocket looking at one card in particular at the front of the deck. Aichi stared hard at Blaster Blade and then looked up to the midday sky, wondering about what could be happening with his friend and rival.

* * *

**Wixoss World: Outside of the Library**

All was peaceful outside of the library for the time being with not that many people passing through the street where the building was situated on. A girl with a dark blackish jacket walked along the pathway. A large red scarf she wore covered up some of her face aside from her brown eyes. A small black hat that this girl had recently acquired covered over most of her brown hair making it almost impossible for anyone who barely knew her to make herself instantly recognizable. Despite the scarf covering up most of her face, the eyes alone could still make out the expression that this girl had. She felt sad, lost and confused, unsure of what she should be doing. However, her trail of thoughts were interrupted from a loud voice coming from the library garden.

"Using Berserk Dragon's ability, I banish Bronda!"

The girl looked across to the trees that obscured the view of the library garden. It sounded like a casual game of Wixoss was already taking place. Having her curiosity get the better of her, she decided to head through to the library garden to see how it would play out. She walked through the doors and headed through the library to the doors leading out to the library door. The girl could then see the battle between Kai and Hitoe playing out in front of her own eyes. She looked closely at the table to notice Yuzuki's card and to her utmost surprise, Tama. Had she chosen not to bite her lip then, she would have gasped out loud, giving away her position and possibly blowing her own cover. Before she could sigh in relief, another voice had chosen to untimely speak out for her.

"So, you've found the traitor. What do you intend to do?"

Before the girl could respond, she could see Yuzuki turning her gaze to the source of her LRIG's voice. She retreated from the door and exited the library before Hitoe's LRIG had a chance to spot her. Back at the table, Tama turned over to Yuzuki noticing her expression.

"What did Yuzuki see?" Tama asked.

"I don't know," the LRIG replied "I think I was just hearing things. But, I could of sworn that sounded like... No, it couldn't be." By then, Kai and Hitoe had briefly paused on their game to see what Yuzuki was murmuring about.

"Um... Don't worry about me!" she replied "I was just hallucinating, that's all. Carry on."

"Right," spoke Kai as he turned his attention back to the battle. "With Blazing Flare's ability, I add 3000 power to Berserk Dragon. Now I move on to my Attack Phase. Are there any effects you wish to use?"

"Um... No," replied Hitoe "You can proceed with your attacks." Kai nodded having that confirmation in mind.

"Berserk Dragon attacks Tyranno!" Hitoe nodded having placed the card in her Ener Zone.

"Next, Dual Axe Archdragon attacks Silvan!"

"Wha...? Dual Axe's power is lower!" gasped Tama "It shouldn't be able to banish Silvan!"

"I wouldn't be so sure," murmured Yuzuki. Tama looked over to her, not quite getting at what she meant before looking back at the battle.

"Dual Axe's skill," replied Kai "When he attacks whilst my opponent only has 1 or no SIGNI at all, then he gains 3000 power until the end of that battle. In other words, his power becomes 11000."

"I see," said Hitoe "In that case, Silvan is banished." She moved the defeated SIGNI to her Ener Zone.

"Blue Ray Dracokid attacks!" Hitoe moved the crushed Life Cloth to her Ener Zone. It revealed Iron, Natural Stone, but no Life Burst icon was present on the bottom of the card.

"Next, Blazing Flare!" Kai declared as he downed the card. Hitoe looked over the cards in her hand and then back at Blazing Flare Dragon.

_If I guard now, I won't lose any more Life Cloths this turn. But..._

"No guard." She revealed her next crushed Life Cloth to be the Spell, Jetting Knowledge.

"Got a Life Burst," she spoke "I Ener Charge."

"Turn end," Kai spoke.

**End of Turn 5**

**Kai vs Hitoe**

**Hand - 2 : 2**

**Life Cloths - 4 : 3**

**Current LRIGs - Blazing Flare Dragon : Yuzuki-Three**

**SIGNI: Dual Axe Archdragon - Blue Ray Dracokid - Berserk Dragon : EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY**

**Ener - 6 : 7**

Hitoe nervously let out a sigh of relief. Things still felt like they were under control for her, but something deep inside was telling her that Kai wasn't going to let her off that easily. Taking a deep breath, she drew her cards and moved 3 Red cards over from her Ener Zone to her trash. She reached into her LRIG deck and took out one card. Yuzuki looked up at her and could only watch in wonder at how she was going to attempt to regain the offensive. Tama who had mostly been watching from just Kai's plays on the sidelines also turned her attention to the Selector, sharing equal interest in how this would go. Regaining her composure, Hitoe held out the card in front of her.

"I grow Yuzuki-Fourth Warning!" As she placed the card on top of Yuzuki-Three, the image in Kai's mind showed an inferno of purple flames consume Yuzuki-Three as the cannons withered away into ash. When the flames eventually died down, Yuzuki's appearance had drastically changed. She now had a red skirt in the place of her trousers along with bright red stockings. Several purple flames were present behind the LRIG's back almost acting like the firey wingspans on Olivier Gaillard's Bluish Flame Liberator, Prominence Glare. Back to reality, Kai looked on at Yuzuki-Fourth Warning's card.

_So this is the power that Hitoe had managed to obtain for you_ he thought _I wonder how she will fare now that she has an advantage over my current state._

"Summon! Using Mušḫuššu's ability, I pay 3 to banish Dual Axe Archdragon!" Kai nodded as he moved the card to his Ener Zone. Yuzuki looked up at Hitoe, holding a warm smile.

"You're doing well," she said "Keep it going!" Hitoe nodded and turned her attention back to Kai.

"Are there any ARTS you want to use?" she asked. Kai looked over the field and shook his head confirming his decision.

"Orochi attacks!" Hitoe called "Using her ability, I move Dual Axe Archdragon from your Ener Zone to your Trash!" Kai moved the card to his Trash Pile, a certain thought on his mind.

"It seems you've realized it now," said Yuzuki, interrupting his trail of thoughts. "Some of my cards focus on burning away at my opponent's Ener, preventing them from using their resources more effectively." Tama looked over to Yuzuki, having just now remembered of what happened during Hitoe's battles with Ruko when she used Yuzuki. Her second battle against Yuzuki and Hitoe was the last battle before the confrontation with Iona and Ulith, where everything eventually fell apart. Despite their victory, Tama could still remember that she was having a hard time dealing with Yuzuki's SIGNI constantly burning away at the Ener they had built up and were only lucky to have enough to use Arc Aura to win the battle. Turning her attention to Kai's scenario, she saw him flip up a Spell as his crushed Life Cloth, this one being another Gatling Claw Dragon. He drew 1 card from the Life Burst effect being present.

"Next!" Kai moved Berserk Dragon and Blue Ray Dracokid to his Ener Zone.

"Finally Yuzuki will attack!" Hitoe called.

"Guard!" Kai revealed Wyvern Guard, Barri from his hand before placing it in his Trash Pile.

"Turn end."

**End of Turn 6**

**Kai vs Hitoe**

**Hand - 2 : 3**

**Life Cloths - 3 : 3**

**Current LRIGs - Blazing Flare Dragon : Yuzuki-Fourth Warning**

**SIGNI: ****EMPTY - EMPTY - EMPTY** : Mušḫuššu, Phantom Dragon Princess - Silvan, Natural Stone - Orochi, **Phantom Dragon Princess**

**Ener - 8 : 2**

"Up and draw." Kai looked at his hand and back at the field, noticing his current situation. _Time for a change in plan. As long as Hitoe still has cards to keep burning away at my Ener, Blazing Flare will eventually go to waste._

_(Insert Music: Cardfight! Vanguard Soundtrack: Fight 6)_

"Grow the Vanguard! The apocalyptic flames that reduce everything in this world to ash!" Yuzuki gritted her teeth. If she knew one thing about those words he spoke back in his battle against Akira, she knew what was coming out. Tama meanwhile looked on in excitement, having realized what Kai was about to bring into the battle.

"Dragonic Overlord!" In the image that Kai had in his mind, a tall column of fire erupted from Blazing Flare Dragon previously before the tall red dragon emerged from the flames with a deafening roar. It stared over Yuzuki with a fierce glint in its yellow eyes. Back to reality, Tama let out a cheer of joy for seeing Kai using Overlord again since his first battle. It may not have been a Selector Battle, but just looking at the dragon depicted on the card was enough to keep her interest in watching.

"I summon and use the ARTS Firefly Sparks to banish Orochi!" Hitoe nodded as she moved the banished SIGNI to her Ener Zone.

"Then I pay 3 SIGNI from my Ener Zone to activate Dragonic Overlord's ability!" Kai declared. After moving 3 cards from his Ener Zone to his Trash Pile, he turned his attention to his SIGNI. "Attack!" Hitoe moved her defeated Silvan to her Ener Zone before flipping over her next two Life Cloths revealing Roaring Fire Pillar and Servant D, a Life Burst having been spotted on the bottom of the second card.

"Using the Life Burst," she said "I Ener Charge."

"Next, Dragonic Overlord attacks Mušḫuššu!"

"Guard!" Hitoe revealed Servant D2 before placing it in her Trash Pile. Kai wasn't too disappointed with the result however, despite the fact that he had wasted 3 Ener to allow Dragonic Overlord to simply attack something that could have been banished with another copy of Firefly Sparks. He looked over to Hitoe to see her regain her breath in relief.

"Turn end."

_(End Insert Music)_

**End of Turn 7**

**Kai vs Hitoe**

**Hand - 1 : 2**

**Life Cloths - 3 : 1**

**Current LRIGs - Dragonic Overlord : Yuzuki-Fourth Warning**

**SIGNI:**** Iron Tail Dragon** - **********Silvan, Natural Stone - ************Silvan, Natural Stone **: Mušḫuššu, Phantom Dragon Princess - EMPTY - EMPTY

**Ener - 0 : 6**

Yuzuki could only sigh in relief with the knowledge that Hitoe had not forgotten of what Dragonic Overlord was capable of from seeing it in Kai's first Selector Battle and that she was able to defend herself from the attacks coming her way. Tama meanwhile had pouted from the fact that Kai wasn't able to get Overlord to land a single hit on either a SIGNI or the LRIG for that manner. Hitoe drew her cards as she began her turn by placing Iron, Natural Stone in her Ener Zone. Before continuing with her turn, she looked over to Kai. Tama and Yuzuki looked up at Hitoe, unsure of why she chose to stop at the moment.

"You really are a great opponent," Hitoe said "You never let anything rattle you and it seems like even when the odds are against you, you never seem to panic at all."

"But of course," replied Kai "A key element in a Vanguard Fight is to keep a cool head whilst you focus on the game ahead. From what I can gather, you've slowly managed to get your composure together to keep on going. Perhaps you would like to show me the extent of your skill."

"R... Right," she nodded before deciding to continue with her turn. "Here I go." Kai nodded in reply.

_(Insert Music: Cardfight! Vanguard Unreleased Soundtrack)_*****

"Using the ARTS Salvage," she said "I add Orochi from my Trash back into my hand. Summon!" Kai could now see that he was staring down at an imposing formation of 2 Level 4 SIGNI, with Orochi back along with another Silvan, Natural Stone there to make things more difficult for him.

"Thanks to Yuzuki's ability, since you have fewer than 4 Life Cloths in your Ener Zone, my SIGNI gain 2000 power at all times. Using Mušḫuššu's ability, I banish Silvan!" Hitoe then moved 3 cards from her Ener Zone to her Trash and pointed to the Silvan in front of her own Silvan in the center column. Kai nodded and moved the card to his Ener Zone.

"Next, I use Yuzuki's ability," she spoke "By paying all of my Red Ener, I can crush your next Life Cloth." Kai flipped over his next Life Cloth, Dual Axe Archdragon. No Life Burst icon was present on it though, which greatly worried Tama as she watched on from the sidelines. Yuzuki who had been watching Hitoe's plays smiled, having been impressed by her efforts. _This battle is now over _she thought _Kai can't use any Guards to block a SIGNI attack._

"I'll use 2 copies of Charging to Ener Charge twice and One Rule, Two Birds to prevent you from using any Level 1 SIGNI to Guard this turn." Hitoe revealed the top cards of her deck, 2 copies of Wyvern, Phantom Dragon and placed them in her Ener Zone before placing one of them straight into her Trash to fufill the cost for the second ARTS she used. "Finally, by discarding the last card in my hand, I'll use the Spell, Jeweled Sword of Shining Desire and give Silvan the Double Crush power up until the end of this turn." Hitoe revealed

"But that means...!" gasped Tama.

"Hitoe will need to land the LRIG attack successfully," murmured Yuzuki before glancing over to Kai. "Kai only has one card in his hand and I'm willing to bet that is either Barri or not even a Guard SIGNI at all." Tama looked on back at Kai to see that despite the scenario he had been driven into, he wasn't worrying about any of this. She then looked back to Hitoe who was also smiling. Yuzuki noticed this too, though her expression quickly went down._Those two are really having a good time _she thought sadly _Just like when Ruko was still with us. I just wish she was here, so we could stop Mayu together with Tama by her side once more and hopefully find a way to help Kai return back home. _Deciding not to ponder on it any further, she turned her attention back to Hitoe who was about to begin with her attacks.

"My first Orochi attacks Iron Tail Dragon!" she called "With her ability, I send 1 card from your Ener Zone to your Trash." Kai moved Silvan from his Ener Zone to his Trash before moving Iron Tail Dragon there in its place. He then looked back at Hitoe.

"I assume that is not all you have," he spoke, a small smile now on his lips. Hitoe nodded in response to his statement.

"That's right," she answered "Each time a card is moved from your Ener Zone to your Trash because of one of my card effects, Mušḫuššu gains 4000 power. Then when her power becomes at least 20000, she gains Double Crush and when she attacks because of this, I can banish any SIGNI of my choice. However, because I'm only able to send 1 card from your Ener to your Trash this turn, her power is only 18000."

"So if you had another effect to burn away at my Ener," Kai concluded "You would have won this battle already. Even so, you're not planning to let it end like that." Hitoe nodded before turning her attention her next attack.

"My powered up Silvan attacks!" she called "Because of the effect of Jeweled Sword, she has Double Crush and you only have 2 Life Cloths."

"Tama doesn't know if Tama can watch!" Tama cried.

"This'll bring him down to no Life Cloths!" called Yuzuki "Hitoe's won!" Kai then looked across at his current scenario. The only card in his hand was Wyvern Guard, Barri which he couldn't even use against Yuzuki this turn and the current attack was coming in for Double Crush. He held his right hand over the last two Life Cloths he had.

"Even if these odds are stacked against me," he spoke "I won't give up! Check!" He flipped the first card, Berserk Dragon, no Life Burst present on it. He reached for the second card and flipped it face up, revealing a card that everyone knew all too well.

"Genjo?!" gasped Yuzuki.

"Recovering one Life Cloth," said Kai. He then looked back at Hitoe.

"It seems you won't finish me this turn," he spoke "But your attacks aren't through yet if I'm not mistaken." Hitoe nodded before downing Mušḫuššu's card. Kai moved his other Silvan to his Ener Zone. The Selector held her hand over the Yuzuki-Fourth Warning card she had in play.

"Yuzuki will attack!" she called. As she downed the card, on the field that Kai was picturing in his mind, Yuzuki gathered her hands together, charging up an energy ball of purple fire. When it was large enough, she hurled it right at Dragonic Overlord, knocking the dragon back several feet. Overlord was not down, but it had certainly taken a beating from the attacks it suffered from. Back to reality, Kai flipped up the new Life Cloth revealing Dragon Monk, Gojo before looking back at Hitoe. She let out a sigh of disappointment.

"Turn end."

_(End Insert Music)_

**End of Turn 8**

**Kai vs Hitoe**

**Hand - 1 : 0**

**Life Cloths - 0 : 1**

**Current LRIGs - Dragonic Overlord : Yuzuki-Fourth Warning**

**SIGNI: ****EMPTY**** - ****EMPTY** - EMPTY : Mušḫuššu, Phantom Dragon Princess - Silvan, Natural Stone - Orochi, Phantom Dragon Princess

**Ener - 5 : 0**

"Darn it," groaned Yuzuki "Hitoe had one chance to finish him and I think she's blown it."

"How so?" asked Tama.

"Haven't you noticed?" she replied "Hitoe's got no cards in her hand and Kai's got 5 cards in his Ener Zone. If she's going to get out of this, there's only one card that can save her." Meanwhile, Kai looked on over at Hitoe with a small smile.

"Impressive," he spoke "You came close to defeating me, even with my lack of a Level 4 LRIG and SIGNI to follow suit. Though you still hold a frail outside appearance, you still hold a strong will to keep on going and help those dearest to you. Even Aichi would be impressed by your resolve."

"Y... You really think so?" murmured Hitoe, having not expected that from him. Kai nodded to confirm her question.

"But, this battle has now drawn to its close," he spoke.

_(Insert Music: Cardfight! Vanguard Soundtrack: Kai no Theme)_

"Up and draw. I Ener Charge and pay the cost for Firefly Sparks to banish Orochi!" Hitoe could only move the SIGNI card to her Ener Zone as this had now left her LRIG wide open.

"I summon Cross Shot, Garp and pay the cost for my own One Rule, Two Birds!" Kai declared as he paid one of the only two Ener he had left. Hitoe looked on nervously at Dragonic Overlord's card. Although this was not a Selector Battle, she felt as though the presence that Yuzuki had mentioned earlier was only getting stronger as the ARTS effect was applied.

"Garp attacks!" Hitoe reached for her last Life Cloth that she had available. _I don't have a card like Dragon Monk, Genjo to regain any Life Cloths. But there's still a chance I can make it through. _She flipped up the card revealing another copy of Mušḫuššu with a Life Burst present.

"Using this effect," she said "I reveal the top card. If it's a Dragon Beast SIGNI, I can draw it and 1 more card."

"So this all comes down to one card," he spoke "Very well then. Let's see if fate is still on your side." Hitoe nodded and flipped over the top card. Sadly to no avail, it was the Spell, Expelling Flames of the Dragon Phoenix. She sadly sighed as she added the card to her hand.

"Dragonic Overlord," Kai spoke as he downed the card "Final Attack!"

On the battlefield he was imaging in his mind, Dragonic Overlord took flight into the air and let out a huge torrent of crimson fire towards Yuzuki who could do nothing but watch as the flames consumed her in an instant. Back to reality, Hitoe looked back up at Kai and was able to muster out a kind smile. He nodded and smiled back as well. Whilst Tama continued to cheer loudly, Yuzuki however was preoccupied by something else on her mind.

_(End Insert Music)_

_That voice I thought I heard. Could that have been Iona? Was Ruko underneath our noses this whole time? If so, we're now back to square one and the rest of us don't even know it. _Deciding not to let that disappointment get the better of her, she turned her attention back to Hitoe.

"You did really well," she said "You've really gotten better at keeping your cool lately."

"Yeah," replied Hitoe, before her mood suddenly went down. "If only I could have done it sooner for Midoriko when she needed me most." Yuzuki grimaced as she remembered everything that happened back then from what her former LRIG, Hanayo had deduced after Hitoe's third loss from before. Nonetheless, she turned to see Kai reach for something in his pocket and hand it over to Hitoe. It looked like a batch of cards that he assembled into a pile. Hitoe was surprised when she looked through the batch of cards.

"Aren't these some of your Kagero units Kai?" she asked.

"Spares that I have obtained from the box I opened yesterday," he answered "Since some of your cards revolve around Dragon Beast SIGNI, I thought you might be able to make some use out of a few of the cards I've given you."

"Really? Thank you so much!" Hitoe replied. She brought up Yuzuki's card to the pile as the LRIG inspected them closely.

"I suppose we might be able to find a way to mix them in," she spoke "But for now, we must return to the subject at hand. Finding Ruko and getting to the bottom of this."

"Tama will find Ru!" Tama called out loud "Tama also liked Kai's battle!"

Kai nodded in agreement with the LRIG's first statement before he and Hitoe gathered their belongings and walked over to the exit of the Library Garden. The two walked through the building together before coming out through the entrance.

"We'll split up for now," said Yuzuki "But we'll promise to keep in contact if anything happens."

"I understand," spoke Kai "Just be careful."

Hitoe nodded before waving goodbye to him and going on her way into the city. Kai looked down at Tama's card to find the LRIG was feeling slightly down from the fact the two had not really made any progress in getting any closer to finding Ruko. She looked back at him however and smiled to try and not feel too down about the whole scenario.

"What does Kai want to do?" she asked.

"Our search will continue," he spoke "Until we can find Ruko and know exactly what is going on, we cannot advance any further in our own discovery for the truth behind the Selector Battles. Now then, are you with me?"

Tama nodded with a big smile in response to his question. Kai couldn't help, but smile a little from Tama's enthusiasm. He slipped the card in his pocket before walking away from the library. As he did so however, the same girl that had briefly eavesdropped on their battle stepped out from the alleyway he had passed by a few seconds ago and glanced down, watching him walk even further into the city. She couldn't help but sigh a little as she watched him continue to walk deeper and deeper into the city, curious of his intent. And the fact that he was holding Tama, something was just bugging her about it.

_So Kai is your name. Why are you involved in all this? More importantly, why are you holding 'her'? The one who ruined everything..._

* * *

**And there we go! So yeah, had it not been for Genjo right there, Hitoe would have legitimately beaten Kai on her own. I hope that last part of this chapter answered your question well kineke13. So from the recent chapters you've read, you know that Ren and Leon are already planning to take action to find Kai in the world of Wixoss. And before anyone gets any doubts, yes, Aichi will be joining them, I'll get to writing up that part ASAP. Anyway, speaking of that topic, I've just put up a poll on my profile to allow you to vote for one more character from the Vanguard world that will join the three of them. Who that will be is up to you to decide. Anyway, don't forget to favourite, follow and/or leave a review. Until then!**

*** This soundtrack plays in Episode 169 on the turn Kai uses Seeker, Sing Saver Dragon's Soulmate Legion for the first time.**


End file.
